// MATTER · ELEMENT 100 / 118atoms.no/elements
Fm100
Fermium
Fm·Z 100·Actinide·257·⭕ 2A · E♭ Minor
▸ The reading
interpretive · artFermium is the end of the neutron-capture road — no element heavier can be made by simply soaking up neutrons; everything past 100 requires heavy-ion collisions. Also fished out of hydrogen-bomb fallout, also named for a physicist who changed the century. The last rung of the passive ladder.
The science below is cited as science; the symbolic layers are flagged as interactive art.
⚜ Periodic Frequency
2AE♭ Minor
a seat struck in brass — testimony, not prediction
the seat has its own room on ⭕ THE OVAL TABLE — tap the code
▸ The lenses
▸ Discovery
Albert Ghiorso + colleagues — extracted from fallout coral · United States · 1952
▸ Stellar origin
Human-made (discovered in H-bomb fallout)First identified in 'Ivy Mike' fallout alongside einsteinium. The heaviest element ever produced via neutron capture alone.
▸ Reactivity
Available only in subatomic quantitiesBeyond fermium, neutron-capture synthesis hits a wall — heavier elements require accelerator-based heavy-ion fusion, atom by atom.
▸ Applications
- Heavy-element synthesis research
- Tracer studies in actinide chemistry
- (No commercial applications)
- (No practical bulk uses)
▸ Curiosity
The end of the neutron-capture road — no element heavier than fermium can be made by simply soaking up more neutrons; everything past needs heavy-ion accelerators.
▸ Related readings
a resonance drawn between readings — not a claim that they share an origin.
Actinide seriesEsEinsteiniumMdMendelevium
f-blockEsEinsteiniumMdMendelevium
Adjacent ZEsEinsteiniumMdMendelevium