Nobelium is a synthetic radioactive actinide named in honor of Alfred Nobel.
Core Principles & Analysis
A 1957 discovery claim from Stockholm's Nobel Institute could not be reproduced, and IUPAC ultimately credited definitive synthesis to Dubna in 1966, yet the name nobelium, for Alfred Nobel, was retained.
Its most stable isotope, nobelium-259, has a half-life of 58 minutes.
Nobelium is chemically anomalous among actinides: its most stable state in solution is +2 rather than +3, a consequence of its exceptionally stable, completely filled 5f electron shell.