Slashdot Mirror
Super-Sensitive Spray-On Explosive Detector
esocid writes "US scientists have designed a new spray-on explosive detector sensitive enough to detect just a billionth of a gram of (nitrogen-containing) explosive. After treatment, the explosive glows blue under UV light, making the detector perfect for use in the field. The silafluorene-fluorene copolymer can detect explosives at much lower levels than existing systems because it detects particles instead of explosive vapors, and is able to show the difference between nitrate esters (trinitroglycerin) and nitroaromatic explosives (TNT). The team is currently working on a similar system to detect peroxide-based explosives and say they hope to be able to investigate perchlorates and organic nitrates, too."
Explosive material found on every bedsheet of every hotel in America!
95% percent of our paper money contains microscopic amounts of cocaine, imagine if we use such sensitive equipment to detect it. We'd all be locked up. Mmmm...maybe that's the intention.
What?
If I can make it detect dog crap when I'm walking.
Sprinkle peroxide on everybody's luggage.
What?
Anyone think there's enough references to CSI: Miami? Seriously though, this seems like a good idea overall, however I'm thinking that we shall see this in the future at the airports. Extended wait periods to test for explosives like this.
PouchPC 2.13ghz C2D, 8gb ram, 9800 GT, 1.5tb, Vista Business.
So, can it detect glycerin? I think it's found in many skin care products.
Then again, is there any information on the number of false positives of this thing?
Tie two birds together: although they have four wings, they cannot fly. (The blind man)
if this cuts down the line at the airport - and hopefully, also cut down the cost of detection and security, then I'm all for it.
I think the current system of security at the airport is woefully inadequate. There seems to be too much reliance on human intelligence for detection - with all the problems that brings with it, it's time consuming, and resource hungry. In the end, to me at least, it seems more for show (i.e. relying on prevention) then on detection, making everyone a suspect.
Some airports placed those airsniffers, but even they take a long time, and, as I understand it, are very, very expensive.
-- All this knowledge is giving me a raging brainer.
So, if I'm reading this correctly (and I'm quite possibly not), does this mean we can all expect to be sprayed before boarding a plane in the near future?
Developers: We can use your help.
The article isn't terribly specific about which nitrogen compounds react to the spray, only providing a couple of examples. If I worked in my garden 5 days before a flight, am I going to get hazed by TSA because I didn't eliminate every last speck of fertilizer from my clothes?
Create a concentrated extract of whatever this stuff detects, come up with a simple dispersal mechanism (Let's say, put it in your gas so that it comes out the exhaust) and drive around the airport twice.
Every single person will be alerting. They will give up on the idea pretty soon after that.
Either that or come and kill you in your sleep.
(Yes, in this case Coward is important part of AC)
Some of my coworkers have an explosive personality *joke*.
on The World's Largest Crime Syndicate
Thank you for your crime-fighting consideration.
Cordially,
K. Trout
I lost faith in the current airport explosives detectors when I found out that Bondo products set them off. It was a hilarious hour or so watching a broken system thrash about trying to figure out why their machine kept beeping when there were clearly no explosives in my bag.
Did I mention that this was after a Defcon in the Las Vegas airport?
I lost what little respect I had in the system (note: Not the people you would ever see on the floor, they have been pretty OK for the most part) at that point.
Between the War On Moisture, pointless shoe removal, and a TSA that can't ever answer any question with the word 'Why' in it, I have absolutely zero faith in the system any more.
I am a frequent flier, put in over 100K miles last year and am on track to do more than that this year. If you simply go through the airports enough, you can trivially avoid any security measure there is, it isn't even a trick.
So, spray on bomb detectors? Great. So? Send the bad guys through security 25 times and you will see several obvious ways to not get it checked. Game over.
-Charlie
I never understood what happens when an airport baggage handler gets a second job as a landscaper, and comes to work every day covered in nitrates, and spreads it on everyone's luggages? How do chemical detectors deal with all these sources of noise?
When reading this was, so people's clothing and bags will be covered with this fluorene polymer for who knows how long. And if used liberally in an airport, we'll be breathing aerosolized fluorene. It's not classified as a carcinogen, but I don't believe humans have ever been chronically exposed to it, but I guess we'll find out if the TSA starts using it in a few years.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
Ship your bomb in a box of ping-pong balls.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Already had the technology in 2001; hell the spray even disarms bombs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5h6jRqVUkU
(Watch carefully.)
I ask because that is undoubtedly the place the next plane-bomber is going to carry his explosives, so it won't be long before we're all subject to body cavity searches. If this stuff can safely be sprayed up the ass, though, I'm sure it'll shorten the proctology line at the airport.
I piss off bigots.
A spray-on explosives detector already exists. Here's a picture of it in action in a field situation where explosives may have been present.
That one has a few negative side effects, though... Maybe this new one improves on them? That'd probably be helpful in airports.
The enemies of Democracy are
Spray on detectors are fine and well, but what we really need is something that can detect a fairly large amount of explosives on a person or a car from a few blocks away. If it were car mountable and relatively cheap, we could put it in cop cars and at a few strategic locations, and basically snuff out terrorism without all of this silly finger printing and wiretapping by getting the jump on disarming would be bad guys. Sure, some people might get nailed by false positives, but that's far better than people getting nailed by having their names match someone on a do-not-fly list.
This is my sig.
So isntead of bothering with the trouble of setting off a bomb just spray a bunch of people with a little bit of chemical. If your compatriots do so at other major airports you can probably shut down the whole system for a good while.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
It has a fresh pine scent!
Sig this!
This won't really stop mechanical "bombs" that are based on electricity instead of chemical compounds.
Bob Keeshan rolls over in grave!
Invenio via vel creo
http://www.scribd.com/doc/1809825/Environmental-Protection-Agency-flourene
Well, OK, technically it's silaflourene, but that has a good chance of being worse.
I really think you don't want this stuff sprayed on you.
I think it's safe to assume that the mysterious substance used to train dogs to smell for cocaine... is... ... ... ...
cocaine.
your clothes and suitcase before carrying that bomb on board.
Granted what they are spraying is probably "safe," as PTFE (Teflon), GoreTex and a few other inert materials are made with it, but I still dont like the idea of TSA agents types spraying fluoric compounds at whatever they see fit to need spraying. Most compounds with fluorine have toxic warnings associated with them (ie: heating teflon above 500 can cause it to deteriorate and release toxic fumes). Yes, dihydrogenmonoxide can be fatal too, etc, but fluorine is a true nasty one. Id say people are more likely to be poisoned by spray happy TSA agents than be blown up by a random terrrrrist.
Tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
100% of my money contains macro(?)scopic amounts of cocaine.
in every bathroom in Corporate Amerika, too...
I think US (especially corporate) bathrooms should have CLOSED ENCLOSURES, like many in Japan (at least the ones i've seen). They need to be SEALED. When some shit goes in there and fumigates, it should be the shit-ter who suffers, not everyone else who follows or needs to wash their hands.
This has been something I've noticed over 15 years.... AND NO! US code-approved ceiling fans are NOT enough... not unless a chiller and defumigator are in the toilet room. Deodorizes don't do much of shit. Antiseptic/disinfectants should be sprayed. But, there have been times when I manually over-pumped cinnamon defunker. When called on it, my response was, "do you want it SPICY or DICEY in there?"
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
The machines in use have adjustable sensitivity that can be increased/decreased based on various circumstances to have a good detection rate while eliminating most false positives. That is far more useful than a hyper-reactive spray. This stuff might be useful in war-zones though because it's compact and easily portable, they probably will want to cut back on it's sensitivity though.
I don't know how many people here know this, but a UK citizen was arrested and sentenced in Dubai for 3 milligrams of cannabis. Once people can get arrested for microgram or smaller levels of anything, no one will be safe, since no one will be able to tell if they haven't been exposed at that level, and it will be very hard to verify that the vanishingly small evidence was indeed what was claimed.
Just ask to see a copy of the Materials Safety Data sheet on the chemical. If they can't produce it, they have to stop using it after 24 hours.
Oh good! Something even MORE SENSITIVE, and thus MORE SUBJECT TO FALSE POSITIVES!
Now, Big Brother will have reason to pull you aside because they found:
1) Ammonium nitrate (from fertilizer residue on your golf clubs, shoes, clothes, and anything that ame into contact with equipemnt or fertilized ground)
2) Nitroglycerin (from hand lotions, creams, and medication)
3) Nitrocellulose (unburned powder residue from anybody who shoots or hunts)
4) Phosphorous (residue from matches)
5) Hydrocarbons (from gasoline/diesel if you filled your car up before arriving at the airport)
6) PETN (From heart medication)
7) Glycerine (from hand lotions/creams/makeup)
Considering all the false positives and not a single positive, this product is pretty much useless, except for collaring people who ARE NOT terrorists. Even more so, what about the people who don't know what the ingredients in their personal product are?
How could someone, especially your average Jane Doe who most likely does not realize that her hand cream contains nitroglycerin? How about the cranky guy who doesn't realize he has ammonium Nitrate on his clothes that rubbed off on him from his dog who rolled around on someone's freshly fertilized lawn? How about the guy taking PETN or nitroglycerine for heart problems? Does he need to be a pharmacist as well as a chemist to know that it's the same stuff used in bombs? What about the guy who filled up his car on the way to the airport and has diesel or gasoline fuel residue on his hands? What if you are an avid rifleman? Does the presense of nitrocellulose on your hands/shirt/pants make you a suspected terrorist? They truly and honestly won't be able to explain these things, because they don't know that virtually every product used in daily life can potentially have some "explosive" (when used in pure quantities) ingredient that those overzealous, jackbooted customs "agents" are itching to collar you for.
This product has a *VERY* limited market, and by limited I mean only flights originating from certain, suspect Middle Eastern Countries. Using it in the Civilized World, it serves no more purpose than to give Big Brother enough "Probable Cause" to ruin your day, if not your life.
I'd like to see the numbers of False Positives compared to TRUE POSITIVES.
This crap is no more use than as an expensive can of Cheez Whiz.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Track your TV Shows with your iPhone - FREE
Black powder is based on potassium nitrate (and charcoal and sulfur), but so is the salt substitute I use in my low-sodium diet.
I suspect that I probably have enough potassium nitrate on everything I own to leave trace on everything that touches anything I own.
Given the extreme sensitivity of this solution, my entire world would probably glow blue.
Of course anyone who just ate fries at MacDonalds has hands just COVERED in nitrates (sodium nitrate - plain old table salt)...
I question how useful this is in the real world.
--Tomas
And let's not forget all the heart disease patients -- lots of them take nitrates. I take one nitrate drug (Imdur) daily, and occasionally take nitroglycerine; the latter would, practically by definition, set off any sensitive explosive detector.
Sold in tax free: Razor blades, Matches, Vodka in glass bottles, Propane propelled deodorant, etc...
Confiscated in security: Nail scissors, tweezers, liquid volumes exceeding 100ml
Allowed through security (personal experience ): candles, multiple liquid containers at 100ml each, litres of liquids that are inside a sealed plastic bag with a pwetty picture on it... etc..
This is even past the stage of security theater, it is damn obvious its primary purpose is to allow the airports to sell more stuff once you are past the security clearance.
Imagine someone actually being caught trying to smuggle TNT in his ass?
It would surely result in "Bend over if you want to fly" searches.
Now imagine if someone did that just so he would GET CAUGHT and cause the resulting trend in cavity searches?
Nope... no sense of humor...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
This is useless against perchlorates, which, contrary to what the media and popular fiction tells you, are the primary explosives of terrorists, due to the ease of acquiring them and the ability to tailor them to specific situations. Yes, if you want to take down a building you use nitrates. If you want to drop a plane perchlorates are easier, and no one asks when you buy gallons of insect killer...
That was well written. Specifically where you say "if you're chemically untrained the WHOLE word is what you should be looking for" instead of the more common "if you are [random profession] untrained, you cannot possibly understand anything about the field, so don't try and take my word for it."
Let's say a billionth of a gramme of explosive is present on a surface and you spray this on it. The parts of this substance that has come in contact with the explosive will therefore glow blue.
How clearly can you see the couple of hundred blue-glowing molecules that the explosive has come into contact with? Surely you need trained eagles with magnifiers.
"Ode de Cocaine"
You mean Eau de Cocaine, actually. Eau is French for 'water', and is the word used in the name of perfumes.
I should also mention that it's not pronounced *quite* the same way as "oh", but is an even weirder vowel said by voicing an eeeeee sound while your lips are in the oooo position. It's closest to "ewww" actually (but not the same).
Warning outbreaks of cancer may occur.
Guys, I have the lowdown from my deeply embedded reliable contacts in the DHS.
/.
They are actually going to target items that DON'T glow blue; repeat that DON'T glow blue...
Too bad it will only work against those terrorists who don't frequent sites such as
In a month anyone NOT detectable by this absurd theater will be assumed to be a no-good-nik because they DON'T set it off.
It's all history, man. -anon
Holy shit, way to take a joke and run it into the ground.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Even better the small room which contains my reloading bench also houses most of my hanging clothes.
A friend tells of traveling with his gun and ammo, and having the agent swab down the case outside for explosize residue after verifying the gun inside. And not checking the rest of the inside of the case for anything. And they got a negative!