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Periodic Table of Nottingham
Lv

Livermorium

Nottingham element: Ada Lovelace

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine.

She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is sometimes regarded as the first to recognise the full potential of a "computing machine" and one of the first computer programmers.

Lovelace was the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron and his wife Lady Byron.All of Byron's other children were born out of wedlock to other women. Byron separated from his wife a month after Ada was born and left England forever four months later. He commemorated the parting in a poem that begins, "Is thy face like thy mother's my fair child! ADA! sole daughter of my house and heart?".

She was buried, at her request, next to her father at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire

Scientific element: Livermorium

Livermorium is a highly radioactive metal that does not occur naturally. It is made by bombarding curium atoms with calcium. The most stable isotope has a half-life of about 53 milliseconds.

It was discovered in 2000 by scientists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, USA.

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