the chemical symbol for
einsteinium, a
transuranic element with atomic number 99. The atomic weight of the longest-lived isotope, with a half-life of 276 days, is 254. The first isotope discovered, having atomic weight 253 and a half-life of 20 days, was recognized in 1952 in the debris from a hydrogen bomb test. As much as 3 micrograms of einsteinium were produced by a complex process involving long irradiation of plutonium isotopes in nuclear reactors. Its chemical properties are those of a trivalent actinide element. [
WordNet 1.5]