BWI hosting pilot security program for next-generation carry-on scanner

The COBRA system, built by Massachusetts-based Analogic, is an automatic explosive detection system that provides transportation security officers with a 3-D picture of items passing on the belt, while simultaneously detecting explosives or banned material.

“The biggest advance [from the old system] is X-ray, this is X-ray and explosive detection,” said Joe Salvator, deputy federal security director for BWI.

The system scans 2-D images from several angles to create a composite 3-D image, which security officers can rotate on the screen. At the same time, the system scans for explosives. Because of the 3-D image, travelers no longer need to remove items such as laptops from their bags for inspection


(Arianne Starnes/Examiner)

BWI is the third airport nationwide to employ a version of the system, along with Cleveland and Manchester, N.H.

Response has been positive from travelers and the 50 to 60 transportation safety officers at BWI who underwent training on the system, Salvatore said.

"We’re hoping because it’s less manual, the wait will go a little faster,"

he said.

BWI has been a test bed for a number of pilot security programs, Salvator said, and the airport was chosen for the current program due to its proximity to Transportation Security Administration headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In about a month the airport will be swarmed with holiday travelers, but TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said she didn’t think the one new machine would create delays.

Full story Examiner.com

Explosives Detection Kits

Now it is includes P.D.K. explosive field test kit and as a result could also detect improvized chlorates based and peroxide based explosive compounds. This system is based on the same reagents in Expray, but in a drop tube deliverable system, for ease of use during field and laboratory investigation. This kit is also able to detect an additional category of explosives: chlorates. When using drop # 4 for detection of chlorates (also for bromides) this drop is used by itself and does not require drops # 1, 2, or 3 to precede it. If you are not sure what type of explosive you are testing for, you will need two samples. The first sample can be tested using Drop-Ex 1, 2 and 3. The test for chlorates and bromides must be a separate test using Drop-Ex 4.




Itemiser Desktop Explosives and Narcotics Detection

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Lightweight and easy to carry, the desktop Itemiser is the world's first trace detector that can simultaneously detect explosives and narcotics. A major timesaver that reduces bottlenecks in security detection, it also eliminates security vulnerability if only one sample is available. Simultaneous testing for explosives and narcotics improves accuracy for hard-to-detect substances such as TATP and smokeless powder. As terrorists turn to narcotics for financing, the ability to test for both substances at once is an important advantage.

More info - tracedetection.net

Genetically Modified Plants Could Become Sentinels for the Military

As concerns grow over the threat of bioterrorism and weapons of mass destruction, Penn State University genetic researchers are working on an early warning system - the figurative canary in the mineshaft - that could be as unobtrusive and ubiquitous as plants in a landscape. This “canary” is a specially engineered plant or group of plants designed to detect and signal the presence of many harmful chemical or biological agents.

In theory, soldiers could be equipped with a hand-held electronic device. When pointed at a native plant, the readings on the device would indicate the plant was exposed to nerve gas some time in the last several hours or several days. At present such a device does not exist.

To develop such technology, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Penn State University a 3 year, $3.5 million grant to lay groundwork for genetically engineered plants that can detect the presence of harmful nerve agents. Plants are a suitable candidate because they are rooted to their environment, and cannot move out of a given area like an insect or other animal. They can therefore become a short-term history book of their environment over the last several days. Just as a plant will wilt without water, or become lighter green with less nitrogen, a plant that is genetically altered to become sensitive to a nerve agent or other chemical compounds poisonous to humans would retain certain effects of its exposure.

Plants and animals detect and respond to a range of things - including microbes, insects, chemicals and hormones - via cellular proteins. These proteins, called receptor-like kinases (RLKs), have a sensing domain outside the cell membrane that binds molecules in the environment. This binding sends a signal inside the cell to the response domain, known as the kinase, which then turns on genes that trigger a response. One of the plants being studied at Penn State is Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant from the mustard family that grows around the world and is widely used as a model organism in plant biology.

Even detection of something such as explosives in the soil is under research. A military commander, with the proper electronic device, could receive a readout from a plant in his locale that could indicate the presence of explosives nearby. Of course, such genetically modified plants would have to be planted into the environment ahead of time, which may pose its own set of problems.

Jack Schultz, a chemical ecologist and professor of entomology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, indicates in the Penn State extension website that their experiments may eventually aid the agricultural community as well. One example given was that a sensor could be mounted on the front of a farm tractor traveling across a field when operating a pesticide sprayer. The sensor could detect the presence of a certain weed or insect pest and turn the sprayer on or off or add different chemical components for a given section of the field, and thus reduce the total volume of pesticides used.

Tom Clouser is a 38 year old farmer in Pennsylvania. In addition to farming, he and his father publish a monthly 16-page newspaper called "Trees 'n' Turf", which targets subjects of interest to those in land use industries and activities. View their website at www.clouserfarm.net

Article Source: EzineArticles.com expert - Thomas Clouser