Terrestrial samples first searches

Any search for superheavy elements in terrestrial material begins with the choice of a sample. Relevant geochemical aspects are discussed in Refs. [34, 35]. First searches were reported in 1969 by the Berkeley [10] and the Dubna groups [36]. In Berkeley, a search for element 110, eka-platinum, in natural platinum ores with standard analytical techniques remained negative at a concentration limit of 1 ppb, and low-level counting techniques did not reveal any activity above background. In Dubna, however, fission tracks discovered in old lead glasses were tentatively... 

Gr. technetos, artificial) Element 43 was predicted on the basis of the periodic table, and was erroneously reported as having been discovered in 1925, at which time it was named masurium. The element was actually discovered by Perrier and Segre in Italy in 1937. It was found in a sample of molybdenum, which was bombarded by deuterons in the Berkeley cyclotron, and which E. Eawrence sent to these investigators. Technetium was the first element to be produced artificially. Since its discovery, searches for the element in terrestrial material have been made. Finally in 1962, technetium-99 was isolated and identified in African pitchblende (a uranium rich ore) in extremely minute quantities as a spontaneous fission product of uranium-238 by B.T. Kenna and P.K. Kuroda. If it does exist, the concentration must be very small. Technetium has been found in the spectrum of S-, M-, and N-type stars, and its presence in stellar matter is leading to new theories of the production of heavy elements in the stars. 

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