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T-rays to detect terrorists
IMAGING technology could be used to detect terrorists as easily as it could find cancer, researchers believe.Devices using TeraHertz, or T-rays, are being developed in laboratories around the world that will like never before see through clothing, packaging and other objects. Safer and clearer than X-rays, T-rays are emissions between infra-red and microwaves. T-rays enable scientists to analyse the composition and density of things the rays contact, and also to image them. "Most molecules vibrate in the TeraHertz frequency, so if you can detect them with T-rays, you can get a very good fingerprint," Professor Derek Abbott, from Adelaide University said. "T-rays pass through things like food packaging, clothing, plastic and cardboard enabling us to analyse what's inside. "This means they can be used to detect and identify weapons of metal or plastic, illicit drugs or biological hazards like anthrax, even if they were hermetically sealed. "You can find out much more about the substance than you would with optical, infra-red or X-ray imaging, and this helps to identify it precisely." Leading scientists from the US, Europe, Asia and Australia will converge on Adelaide from Thursday to discuss the latest advances in T-ray technology. Prof Abbott said scientists had recently discovered that T-ray technology could be used to detect cancer and it could also identify explosive compounds. He said it had the ability to be used in food safety and quality monitoring, disease detection, airport security, postal scans for drugs, explosives or bio-weapons and military threat detection. Posted by: tipper 2004-12-13 |
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