[kal-uh-fawr-nee-uh
m] 
| a transuranic element. Symbol: Cf; atomic number: 98. |
| cal·i·for·ni·um (kāl'ə-fôr'nē-əm) n. Symbol Cf A synthetic element produced in trace quantities by helium isotope bombardment of curium. All isotopes are radioactive, chiefly by emission of alpha particles. Atomic number 98; mass numbers 244 to 254; half-lives varying from 25 minutes to 800 years. See Table at element. [After California.] |
californium cal·i·for·ni·um (kāl'ə-fôr'nē-əm)
n.
Symbol Cf
A synthetic radioactive element produced in trace quantities by neutron bombardment of curium. Its most stable isotope, Cf 251, has a half-life of 790 years. Atomic number 98.
californium
synthetic chemical element of the actinoid series of the periodic table, atomic number 98. Not occurring in nature, californium (as the isotope californium-245) was discovered (1950) by Stanley G. Thompson, Kenneth Street, Jr., Albert Ghiorso, and Glenn T. Seaborg at the University of California, Berkeley, as a product resulting from the helium-ion bombardment of curium-242 (atomic number 96) in the 60-inch cyclotron.
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