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Technetium is the first element in the periodic table which is naturally radioactive, so it
is the lightest radioactive element and so for a long time very little was known about
it. Now people are beginning to study it in suitably strong surroundings of ů to contain
the radioactivity and they have discovered that the chemistry of technetium is in many
ways quite similar to that of rhenium or manganese. And there are a number of medical treatments
now which use the radioactivity of technetium in order to trace through the body and look
at their emissions to find out about different diseases. And so the chemistry of technetium
is becoming more important in the medical role, how to make a compound that you can
get into the body safely and quickly so that it can be used for medical purposes.