NOBELIUM-254 IS THE HEAVIEST ELEMENT TO BE STUDIED IN DETAIL. The natural elements run out at uranium (92 in the Periodic Table), but physicists can go further by artificial means. At Argonne's ATLAS accelerator, projectile calcium nuclei plow into target lead nuclei. Most of the time the product nucleus fissions immediately, but in a small fraction of the collisions, a nucleus of nobelium (element 102) is formed. The very heavy isotope No-254, with 102 protons and 152 neutrons, has a relatively long lifetime of 55 seconds, but it is difficult to study since it is produced amidst a welter of fission products from other nuclei. At Argonne the detection process is twofold. First, the No-254 is created within a device called the Gammasphere, a 10-foot-across spherical ball lined with gamma-ray detectors, which sample the high-energy photons cast off by the newly created, highly excited (and often rapidly spinning) nuclei. Second, the forward-going No-254 specimen is steered through a fragment mass analyzer where it follows a course favoring only such heavy nuclei. Eventually it buries itself in a silicon detector where it is identified by its characteristic decays into lighter nuclei. The signals from the silicon detector are coordinated with those from the upstream Gammasphere, so that the gammas which came from the nobelium can be attributed to that nucleus alone. Among nuclei for which gamma specta exist, Fermium-256 (element 100) is the heaviest isotope, but Nobelium-254 is the heaviest element (102). The gamma information reveals that (1) the nobelium is born prolate (squashed from the spherical by about 20%) and (2) that a nucleus this big can sustain a spin as large as 14 quantum units. These findings will be reported (contact Robert Janssens, 630-252-8426) at the meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics in Santa Fe, October 28-31. (see figure at Physics News Graphics.)