The discoveries of mendelevium, nobelium, and lawrencium followed. Eskola studied the alpha decay of Nobelium 255 and 257. The synthetic element nobelium was named after him. This proposal was also not accepted, and in 1997 the name "nobelium" was restored. The half-lives of nobelium isotopes increase smoothly from No to No. They determined eka-ytterbium properties, consistent with nobelium as the heavier homologue. The synthesis of neutron deficient nobelium isotopes was studied in 1975 at the FLNR. In 1961 Eskola demonstrated that the half-life of Nobelium was 25 seconds. Isotopes of nobelium have also been identified in the decay of heavier elements. Given this, it is probable that no nobelium was actually produced in this experiment. A nobelium atom has 102 electrons, of which three can act as valence electrons.