Nanotechnology against Terrorism
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Terrorists often come in the guise of ordinary persons and strike at unexpected places. The traditional terrorism prevention strategy is to subject people to rigorous security checks at sensitive places, and to generally limit their democratic rights. Security and democratic freedom often become incompatible under such an environment.
Can this situation be changed? According to the authors of “Nanotechnology and Homeland Security”, it can. For example, nanotechnology-based sensors can detect a range of threats from food contamination to weapons of mass destruction. Nanomaterials can protect homes, offices and people on the scene. And nanotechnology-based remediation technologies can heal the effects of environmental damage.
The book discusses the above and other topics to propose that the new technology can help in “fighting terrorism without sacrificing our open, free, and democratic society.” As the cited possibilities hint, nanotech can be used to prevent terrorist actions, and also to mitigate the impact of incidents that do occur.
Nanotechnology affects practically every field of life and promises solutions that are completely different from what we are accustomed to, from perennial sources of energy to new cancer treatment. Fighting terrorism is another of the new possibilities of this technology, according to the authors.
Tags: democratic freedoms, fighting terrorism, nanotechnology
Posted in emerging technologies, forensics, nanotechnology | No Comments »
Atomic Force Microscopes Enables new Fingerprint Detection Technology
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) have tips that are of nanometric scale (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter). By measuring and analyzing the deflection of the lever to which the tip is attached, information about the invisibly small measured object can be computed.
The scientific support unit of Northamptonshire Police, UK, has now found a way to lift fingerprints from bullets and other metal objects using AFMs. Fingerprint recovery from bullets is currently very low and even a small increase in the success rate is considered significant for forensics.
Earlier, fingerprints were being lifted by applying powder to the material, a method that can damage the evidence. Scientists at the police support unit now employs natural heat and humidity to let the fingerprint image be enhanced and uses AFM and other tools to recover the image.
When a finger touches a metal surface, it leaves a residue that interacts with the metal. Using temperature and humidity, the interaction results can be converted into a permanent image. Components of the sweat deposit can even survive washing and wiping.
Read the story at: Fingerprint Detection with Nano Device
Tags: afm, atomic force microscope, fingerprint recovery, forensics, nano device
Posted in forensics, nanotechnology | No Comments »
