X-ray Specs

AIRPORT SECURITY Is that a belt or a bomb? The problem with today’s airport baggage-screening technology is it can’t distinguish among different kinds of metal – and therefore has trouble telling a stainless steel buckle from the silver azide used in a detonator. Jim Raistrick, a chemist at Keele University in Staffordshire, England, may have […]

AIRPORT SECURITY

Is that a belt or a bomb? The problem with today's airport baggage-screening technology is it can't distinguish among different kinds of metal - and therefore has trouble telling a stainless steel buckle from the silver azide used in a detonator. Jim Raistrick, a chemist at Keele University in Staffordshire, England, may have a solution: an X-ray technique that scans a suitcase at many different frequencies and uses the resulting absorption patterns to identify silver, mercury, lead, and other common bomb-making materials. Raistrick's system is compatible with existing airport security equipment, and he estimates the new hardware and software required won't cost more than $100,000 per machine. The ETA for the tech is two years - he's already in talks with several companies.

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