Darmstadtium is a member of the transactinide series of elements, which are also known as heavy metals. It is a highly radioactive element with unique nuclear properties, including the highest atomic mass of any element that has been successfully synthesized. Darmstadtium is so unstable that its characteristics cannot easily be measured and it does not have any known practical applications. It was named after the city of Darmstadt in Germany, where it was first synthesized in a particle accelerator by a team of German and Russian scientists.