Discovered : by a group of scientists at Dubna, near Moscow, Russia in 1964, and independently by A. Ghiorso and co-workers at Berkeley, California, USA in 1969 Origin : The element is named after Lord Rutherford, a New Zealand physicist and chemist. Description : A radioactive metal which does not occur naturally and of which relatively few atoms have ever been made. It is of research interest only. Image : Splitting the atom.