a radioactive chemical element with a very short half-life: a transactinide produced by bombarding californium or plutonium with high-energy nuclear particles: symbol, Rf; at. no., 104
Origin:
ModL, after Ernest Ernest Rutherford + -ium
See rutherfordium in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun Symbol Rf
An artificially produced radioactive element with atomic number 104 whose most long-lived isotopes have mass numbers of 253, 255, 257, and 259 with half-lives of 1.8, 1.6, 4.7, and 3.4 seconds, respectively. See Table at element.