Kevin Bullis

A View from Kevin Bullis

Detecting Hydrogen-Peroxide Explosives

New technologies could help authorities prevent terrorist attacks.

  • September 6, 2007

On Wednesday, German police found stockpiles of concentrated hydrogen peroxide. The substance can be used to create a potent liquid explosive of the type used before in terrorist attacks, and which authorities have long feared could be used on airplanes. Technologies are currently being developed for detecting such explosives at airports. We wrote about one of these technologies last year. Recently, the Department of Homeland Security described in its monthly newsletter a method of detecting various liquids.

Tagged

Germany, explosives, hydrogen peroxide, sensors, tatp, terrorism

Kevin Bullis

Kevin Bullis Senior Editor, Materials

My reporting as MIT Technology Review’s senior editor for materials has taken me, among other places, to the oil-rich deserts of the Middle East and to China, where mountains are being carved away to build the looming cities.… More

Growing up, I lived for a time in the Philippines, where I knew people who lit their tiny homes with single lantern batteries or struggled to breathe through the dense diesel fumes of Manila, so I have a feel for the pressing need around the world for both cheap energy and clean energy.

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