moly cow

Meanings

1. A device used to extract from a source of decaying molybdenum-99 the metastable isotope ⁹⁹ᵐTc of technetium, which is the most commonly used medical radioisotope.

Etymology

From moly (informal term for molybdenum) + cow. The word cow alludes to the fact that the device “milks” technetium-99m from molybdenum-99: see quotations.