1961-1971

Lawrencium

• In 1961, researchers at Berkeley
• bombarded californium
• having a mix of isotopes
• adding measures to remove
• lead and bismuth impurities
• with boron ions
• knocking reaction products
• into helium, stopped,
• and collected on a moving tape
• that passed under spectrometers.
• Between 1965 and 1970,
• researchers at Dubna
• bombarded americanium
• with oxygen isotopes
• knocking reaction products
• from a notched copper disk
• into argon, stopped,
• and detected granddaughter
• fermium isotopes
• using ion-exchange separation.
• In 1971, Berkeley conducted
• a series of experiments
• to measure the decay products
• of lawrencium isotopes
• to confirm the results
• of both Berkeley and Dubna.

Atomic number 103

• The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
• Trans-fermium Working Group
• decided in 1971 the Berkeley had discovered lawrencium
• even though Berkeley’s data was unconvincing,
• and decided in 1992
• that Dubna’s data was more convincing
• and that, regardless, both Berkeley and Dubna
• had discovered lawrencium.

Tertiary effects

• Like a professional saboteur,
• he has no permanent address.
• We know he’s been in town
• because machines at the factory are broken.
• If he had a step-child,
• and if his step-child had a daughter,
• she wouldn’t know
• what he did for a living.
• You could call it a living,
• or you could call it an infliction.
• All we know is that it leaves a toxic trail
• difficult to attribute to a cause.