Chemical element "Sb" (stibium) for antimony. Chemical symbols are understood internationally when element names might require translation. There have sometimes been differences in the past. For example, Germans in the past have used "J" (for the alternate name Jod) for iodine, but now use "I" and "Iod". The first letter of a chemical symbol is always capitalized, as in the preceding examples, and the subsequent letters, if any, are always lower case (small letters). Thus, the symbols for californium and einsteinium are Cf and Es. There are also symbols in chemical equations for groups of chemical elements, for example in comparative formulas.
Californium of 2.645 years. All the remaining isotopes have half-lives shorter than a year, and the majority of these have half-lives shorter than 20 minutes. The isotopes of californium range in mass number from 237 to 256. Californium-249 is formed from the beta decay of berkelium-249, and most other californium isotopes are made by subjecting berkelium to intense neutron radiation in a nuclear reactor. Although californium-251 has the longest half-life, its production yield is only 10% due to its tendency to collect neutrons (high neutron capture) and its tendency to interact with other particles (high neutron cross-section). Californium-252 is a very