Overview

The term "transfermium" describes the elements with atomic numbers greater than 100. Fermium is element 100, so transfermium means "beyond fermium." The transfermium elements are grouped together for a number of reasons. First, they are all prepared artificially. None of them occur in the Earth's crust naturally (that anyone knows of). Second, they can be made with only the greatest difficulty. In fact, no more than a few atoms of some transfermium elements have been created so far. Third, very little is known about the transfermium elements. With only a few atoms to study, it is difficult to learn much about them.

Still, the transfermium elements are of great interest to chemists and physicists. They help answer questions about the periodic table. The periodic table is a chart that shows how chemical elements are related to each other. The transfermium elements are found at the very end...