Which is your favourite chemical element? To mark the International Year of the Periodic Table, our science journalists will be arguing for their pick from the 118 known elements. In this instalment, Tami Freeman highlights how technetium-99m helps to save lives before rapidly decaying away.As the medical physics editor for Physics World, it seems apt that I should choose technetium as my favourite element — or more specifically, its metastable nuclear isomer technetium-99m (Tc-99m). Tc-99m is employed in tens of millions of medical diagnostic procedures per year — about 80% of all nuclear medicine procedures worldwide. As such, it is helping to save lives on a daily basis.

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Source: Physics World