Sicily. Researchers Carlo Perrier and Emilio Segrè discovered technetium (from the Greek technetos, meaning artificial) in the laboratories of the University of Palermo’s Institute of Physics. They identified it in a sample of molybdenum sent to them by Ernest Lawrence. The sample, from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, consisted of a piece of molybdenum electrostatic deflector that had been bombarded with deuterium nuclei in the cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley, transforming it into 97Tc. Technetium was the first element ever produced artificially, although its existence in nature was later demonstrated both within and outside the solar system. It is the first and only element discovered in Italy. For many years, a gap remained in the periodic table for element number 43. Dmitry Mendeleev predicted that the missing element would be chemically similar to manganese and therefore named it ekamanganese. In 1925, Walter Noddack and Ida Tacke, the discoverers of rhenium, announced the discovery of element 43, naming it masurium (after Masuria, a region of East Prussia, now Poland). Their announcement was never confirmed and is now commonly considered erroneous, although some researchers have disputed this conclusion. In 1952, American astronomer Paul Merrill identified technetium in the emission spectra of some red giant stars, strengthening the theory that such stars produce heavy elements. Modest quantities have also been found in uranium mines, especially those where natural nuclear fission has occurred, such as the Oklo nuclear reactor.
