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Neutron-based device could foil terrorists by sensing explosives in baggage.
Up to 40 percent of checked luggage falsely sets off airport bomb detectors, wasting time and money, and because the detectors look for suspicious objects rather than explosive chemicals, clever terrorists could still evade them. But HiEnergy Technologies in Irvine, CA, has dusted off a technology abandoned as impractical in the 1980s to create new sensors that can chemically identify explosives, even through steel. HiEnergy's founder and CEO, Bogdan Maglich, says the device sends a harmless amount of neutrons toward an object. It then analyzes radiation induced by the particles to reveal the chemical makeup of the target. HiEnergy's revival of the technology pivoted on its ability to control noise from neutrons hitting objects other than the ones being scanned. The Spanish government has asked the company to develop the technology into a car-bomb detector for use in parking garages; tests of the detector are scheduled for early December, and those of a baggage- and cargo-scanning system could follow in January.
Other PrototypesVoltage is the difference of electrical potential between two points of an electrical or electronic circuit, expressed in volts. It measures the potential energy of an electric field to cause an electric current in an electrical conductor.
Most measurement devices can measure voltage. Two common voltage measurements are direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC).
Learn the fundamentals of creating an AC or DC voltage measurement system. See how to properly connect the signals to your data acquisition system for accurate acquisition.
This document is part of the How-To Guide for Most Common Measurements centralized resource portal.
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