[Clips] New Screening Tech Misses Nothing
R.A. Hettinga
rah at shipwright.com
Thu Oct 13 15:35:32 PDT 2005
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Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 18:09:33 -0400
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From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
Subject: [Clips] New Screening Tech Misses Nothing
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<http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,69137,00.html>
Wired News
Wired News New Screening Tech Misses Nothing
By Abby Christopher?
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,69137,00.html
02:00 AM Oct. 11, 2005 PT
Bad news for terrorists and drug traffickers: The hunt for narcotics,
explosives and biohazards is about to get faster and easier thanks to new
research from Purdue University.
A new testing method can, for the first time, speedily check objects and
people for traces of chemical compounds. The detection technology known as
mass spectrometry is already in use by forensic scientists.
"Mass spectrometry is one of the most sensitive methods for finding drugs,
chemicals, pollutants and disease, but the problem is that you have to
extract a sample and treat that sample before you can analyze it," said
Evan Williams, a chemistry professor at UC Berkeley.
That process can take anywhere from two to 15 minutes for each sample.
Multiply that by the number of people in line at airport security at JFK
the day before Thanksgiving, and you've got a logistical nightmare on your
hands.
The research from Purdue, led by analytical chemistry professor Graham
Cooks, developed a technique called desorption electrospray ionization, or
DESI, that eliminates a part of the mass spectrometry process, and thus
speeds up the detection of substances to less than 10 seconds, said
Williams.
To use it, law enforcement officials and security screeners will spray
methanol or a water and salt mixture on the surface of an object, or a
person's clothing or skin, and test immediately for microscopic traces of
chemical compounds.
In the lab, DESI has tested for chemicals at the picogram level -- or
trillionths of a gram. This is about 1,000 times less than the minimum
amount of material previously required for detection.
Cooks also hopes to commercialize a rugged DESI sensor that would weigh as
little as 25 pounds and fit into a knapsack.
"We have tested it for a wide variety of explosives and the experiments
represent several practical conditions such as using mixtures using
different surfaces (skin, paper, luggage)," says Nari Talaty, a graduate
student on Cooks' team at Purdue.
The new technique is "extremely promising for the detection of illicit
substances on surfaces," said Herbert Hill Jr., a chemistry professor at
Washington State University who is researching ion mobility spectrometry.
"With DESI it appears possible to bring the instrument to the sampling
site, reducing sampling time and complexity," said Hill.
Scientific instrument maker Jeol USA, Oakridge Labs and other academic
researchers have also developed their own surface testing techniques using
mass spectrometry.
Jeol's patented technique uses helium or nitrogen gas to extract and ionize
chemicals, and is already being used by the U.S. Army's Chemical and Bio
Labs, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. However, it cannot
currently detect biomolecules and proteins for biohazards -- an appealing
feature of Purdue's system.
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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