Technetium

Technetium holds a special place in science history — it was the first element ever created artificially. Its name comes from the Greek 'technetos,' meaning artificial. Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segrè produced it in 1937 by bombarding molybdenum with particles in a cyclotron. Technetium does not exist naturally on Earth in any significant amount because all its isotopes are radioactive and decay relatively quickly.

Despite being artificial and radioactive, technetium is incredibly useful in medicine. Technetium-99m is the most widely used radioactive isotope in diagnostic imaging — about 40 million medical procedures per year use it to scan bones, hearts, brains, and other organs. It has a short half-life of just 6 hours, making it safe enough for medical use.

Technetium's symbol 'Tc' is a distinctive two-letter element in Spellement. While 'tc' is rare at the start of English words, partial emphasis lets spellers use 't' or 'c' individually, both of which are among the most common consonants in English.