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Aerosol Spray to Identify Bombing Suspects

Posted by samzenpus on from the spray-the-terror-away dept.

RedHanded writes "Forensic chemists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a color-changing spray that can identify people suspected of making or planting bombs. The chemical turns from yellow to bright red when it comes into contact with urea nitrate, an explosive residue that may be left behind on the hands of someone who has handled an improvised device."

8 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Basic hygiene by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How many false alarms are they going to get after people don't wash their hands after visiting the bathroom?

    Maybe that is what they are looking for - poor hygiene = terrorist?

    Perhaps this chemical is the same one which makes the purple cloud of shame in the swimming pool (I know its a legend but still..)

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:Basic hygiene by Upaut · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Only if this person with bad hygiene sweats nitric acid...

      I'm more worried about, well, me... I use urea nitrate in my tropical orchid mix...

      --
      3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
    2. Re:Basic hygiene by battery111 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, not exactly. I don't know enough about how the chemical works (it will likely be found to cause cancer in the state of california at a later date), but part of manufacturing urea nitrate is indeed to distill ones urine. My guess is that it would have to be at a relatively high concentration in order to react, but that may not be the case, which would cause a large number of false positives. Another thing to keep in mind is that urea nitrate is only one of a large number of homemade explosives, and not really the most common, so while it is a promising advance, it really is not the be all end all of bombmaker detection. One also has to raise questions about its effects on personal privacy, but likely in the areas this is going to be employed, it may be a secondary consideration.

  2. Congratulation! by Daimanta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Terrorists will now use gloves to make bombs. Innocent people will be falsely identified as being a terrorist.

    Mission accomplished!

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
  3. More Griess Test Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the UK, the Birmingham Six were falsely imprisoned for 16 years (one chap died in prison) largely because of the Griess test. The trouble is, anything nitrated will give a positive. The playing cards the men had been using on the train when they were arrested were probably what set it off. Ping pong balls certainly would. Imagine Forrest Gump in the Twenty First Century, "And then I met the President again, then they tasered me, then I went to prison for life." The Griess test is now completely discredited. Its re-introduction would be on a par with admitting polygraphs, or examining chickens' giblets as evidence, whether it's packaged as an aerosol or anything else.

  4. Re:First silly string, now spray paint? by pintpusher · · Score: 5, Informative

    I believe it is used to detect tripwires. Silly string sprayed ahead of you will drape over tripwires without being heavy enough to trip them. makes sense to me anyway.

    --
    man, I feel like mold.
  5. I am against this... by feepness · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think labeling people as terrorists because of their color is just wrong.

  6. You Know You've Read Slashdot Too Long... by Looshi · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...when your first thought is the effect on the rights of the bomb makers.