Congeners, and Uranium

The congeners of manganese are very rare. The middle element of the group, technetium (Z = 43), has not been isolated from mineral sources, and there is good reason to suppose that detectable quantities do not occur naturally (Chap. 27, Exercise 7). Weighable amounts of this element and its compounds have been made from molybdenum by nuclear displacement and from uranium by nuclear fission (p. 474). Rhenium (Z =5 75) occurs naturally but in only tiny amounts. It has been estimated that there is one atom of rhenium present in the earth s crust for each two billion (2 X 109) atoms of silicon. Rhenium was discovered in 1925, technetium in 1937. 

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