• Biochip technology reveals fingerprints of biochemical threats

    The biochip offers a chance to determine the signatures of biological agents that can be used for bioterrorism, most notably the bacterium that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis; while some scientists have used DNA analysis to identify particular strains of the anthrax bacterium, the biochips help scientists and government officials learn how anthrax bacteria are grown, narrowing the pool of potential suspects

  • Thermo Fisher Scientific granted two U.S. patents for radiation detection instruments

    Thermo Scientific RadEye PRD will help border guards, customs agents, or counterterrorism teams detect radiation sources more effectively than conventional personal detectors

  • Children must go through full body scanners at U.K. airports

    U.K. transport minister says that to exclude children from going through full body scanners risked undermining the security measures at U.K. airports; the government’s code of practice on the scanners said airport security staff had all been vetted, including a check of criminal and security service records

  • Nigeria installs body scanners at airport

    Lagos international airport installs three full-body scanners at a cost of $300,000 each. Nigeria’s three other international airports — in the capital Abuja, the oil town of Port Harcourt, and the largest northern city, Kano — are also scheduled to be equipped with the scanners

  • Day of trained sniffing bees is here

    The bee’s discreet sense of smell, equivalent to a dog’s, is being exploited as a much cheaper way to detect various odors in the environment; a U.K. company is now training bees to sniff out explosives and land mines — but also to identify diseases and cancers in people and animals, detect rapidly spreading bacteria in food, and identify dry rot in buildings

  • Airport sensor detects explosives hidden in the body

    Smiths Detection says that the 16HR-LD model of its B-Scan technology can see everything; the machine’s low-dose security technology is able to see all internal body cavities for the detection of concealed threatening objects, such as bombs and detonators

  • Better explosives detection for soldiers, first responders in the field

    From a chemical viewpoint, developing a detector for nitroaromatic compounds such as TNT is difficult because such compounds have a low vapor pressure, meaning their concentration in air at room temperature is around six parts per billion; MIT researchers develop cantilever sensors which use functional coatings to transduce detection of chemicals into a signal; the coating, usually a polymer, swells up when it reacts with the target analyte and deflects the cantilever

  • TSA: Full-body scanner safe for prostheses

    Full-body scanners are safe for passenger with artificial body parts — from replaced hips to augmented breasts; TSA says the scaners uses low-energy X-rays that do not penetrate the skin: prosthetic devices, artificial limbs, and surgically replaced body parts will not show up on the body scan image

  • GAO raises questions about effectiveness of full-body scanners

    The Obama administration is aggressively pushing for deployment of full-body scanners: 450 of the scanners will be installed at U.S. airports by the end of 2010; 950 installed by the end of 2011; and 1,800 by the end of 2014; the cost of installing and maintaining the scanners: about $3 billion over eight years; concerns have been expressed about privacy (some of the technologies used - for example, active millimeter-wave radiation — generate anatomically accurate images of passengers’ bodies) and health (some technologies, for example, backscatter X-ray, inundate passengers with large amounts or radiation (although many physicians say the amount of radiation is not health-threatening); now questions are being raised about the effectiveness of these scanners; GAO: “While [TSA] officials said [the scanners] performed as well as physical pat downs in operational tests, it remains unclear whether the AIT [advanced imaging technology] would have detected the weapon used in the December 2009 incident”

  • Northrop Grumman, Luminex collaborate on autonomous biodetectors

    Luminex’s xMAP Technology will serve as the basis of the two companies’ effort to develop a fully automated biosensor which will continuously monitor the environment and serve as an early warning system to alert authorities regarding the release of potentially harmful airborne agents

  • TSA adds AS&E's X-ray inspection systems to qualified air cargo screening list

    Screening cargo on air planes is promising to be big business, and companies rush to have their screening cargo machines certified by TSA; AS&E has its Gemini 6040, Gemini 7555, and Gemini 100100 X-ray inspection systems added to TSA’s certified cargo screener list

  • CBP deploys radiation detection portals at Port Hueneme, California

    During fiscal year 2009, CBP deployed 179 new radiation portal monitors (RPMs) throughout the U.S. ports of entry, bringing the number of RPMs to 1,354 at the U.S. land and sea ports of entry; the latest RPM were deployed at Port Hueneme, California

  • DHS moving forward on cell-all smartphone chemical detection technology

    DHS wants to turn smartphones into chemical sensors; owners of smartphones would volunteer to have tiny chemical sensors embedded in their devices; millions of American could thus become roving chemical sensing nodes to alert authorities of terrorist — or accidental — chemical toxin release

  • Tiny, sensitive nano oscillator instantly detects pathogens in air or water

    Extraordinarily tiny sensors that can instantly recognize harmful substances in air or water; the device is just 200 nanometers thick and a few microns long with an oscillating cantilever hanging off one end; the cantilever is like a diving board that resonates at distinct frequencies

  • Religious leaders discuss body scanners with DHS

    Muslim, Jewish, and Christian leaders met with DHS officials to discuss the privacy aspects of whole-body scanning; Muslim religious organizations, the Pope, and Orthodox Jewish authorities declared body scanners to be in violation of their respective religions’ modesty strictures, especially for women, and urged their followers to opt for pat-downs instead