The abstract metallic symbol and background are inspired by imagery from early and modern particle accelerators.
A radioactive metal that does not occur naturally. Relatively few atoms have ever been made.

Fact Box

Uses

At present, it is only used in research.

History

In 1969, a team led by Albert Ghiorso at the Californian Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) made three successful attempts to produce element 104: by bombarding curium with oxygen to get isotope-260, californium with carbon to get isotope-257, and californium with carbon to get isotope-258.

A dispute over priority of discovery followed and eventually, in 1992, the International Unions of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) concluded that both the Russian and American researchers had been justified in making their claims. IUPAC decided element 104 would be called rutherfordium.