First produced in 1976 by scientists working at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and later confirmed in 1981 by Peter Armbruster, Gottfried Münzenber and their team working at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany, bohrium was produced by bombarding a target of bismuth-209 with ions of chromium-54.

Bohrium's most stable isotope, bohrium-272, has a half-life of about 9.8 seconds. It decays into dubnium-268 through alpha decay.

Since only a few atoms of bohrium have ever been made, there are currently no uses for bohrium outside of basic scientific research.