Posted on 08/28/2006 12:27:37 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A University of California Berkeley chemist has come up with what could be an effective means of addressing new concerns about liquid explosives.
KCBS's Jeff Bell reports that Department of Chemistry assistant professor Chris Chang never set out to be a key player in the War on Terrorism, and, in fact, the original goals of his research had nothing to do with national security.
"The intent of this research was to develop chemical tools to study the molecular basis of aging," Chang told KCBS's Bell. "We're interested in aging and age-related diseases."
But in the course of his research, he developed something called chemical sensors -- or, as he called them -- "small molecules that can sense other molecules, specifically."
The molecules, Chang says, are "specially designed so that when it sees or recognizes another molecule, it will give off a signal."
The signal would be a clear, bright "glow of light when our chemical sensor sees what it's supposed to see; or, it can change its color."
Chang says even trace amounts of peroxides, or other chemicals that might be used to make explosives, could be detected.
Chang says it's quite possible the breakthrough process could be applied to the technology of baggage screening, for example.
"You would take out liquids that may look suspicious, and then you would have either a dip-stick, or some sort of strip of paper that would have the sensor on it" -- a strip something like those often used to measure pH levels.
"You could just dip it, and then instantly look at it and see if there's a color change," he said. A color change would indicate the presence of chemicals "of interest."
Chang says he has not yet had conversations about the process with security experts or agencies, but he's confident his breakthrough will attract interest from within that field.
"Oh I definitely think so, and I think that there's a lot of opportunity in general for basic research in this direction," he said.
He also told KCBS's Bell that the process would not be expensive. "You would need very little of the sensor in order to get a readout."
Why? Are you an orc?
No, but I can turn a woman red with rage.
Oh. That's normal...
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