'Air laser' tech could sniff bombs, probe atmos from afar
Cunning analysis pulse remotely generated from thin air
Military- and security-funded boffins have been trying to
develop better bomb-detecting technology for many years now.
Most of what they come up with has obvious defects: typically
sensors either don't actually detect explosives but rather
associated substances or shapes (metal detectors, X-ray systems)
or they need to be very close to explosives or other chemicals
of interest – as with sniffer dogs or handheld chem detectors.
All that may finally be about to change, however, as engineers
at Princeton uni say they have come up with a way of making a
very sensitive chemical analysis of a piece of air that is a
long distance from the sensing equipment. Thus the very faint
traces of explosive which are emitted from concealed bombs could
be picked up – just as sniffer dogs can sometimes trace it – but
from outside the bomb's lethal radius. The system works by
remotely generating a pulse of laser light