The biggest driver of innovation is, and has always been, war. More R&D resources are poured into developing efficient ways to kill people than anything else. The upside is that many of these innovations are eventually adapted for civilian use. Relatively recent examples include the Internet and GPS (Global Positioning System). Both started as US defence research projects.
As war has changed in nature, so have the technologies employed. One cutting-edge area of research can be described as very high-tech, broad-spectrum attempts to counter the low-technology embodied in improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
IEDs are the weapon of choice for jehadis in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are responsible for the majority of deaths in both theatres. They are also headaches for security everywhere. Any semi-literate nutter possessing basic manual dexterity and a grudge can rig up an IED.
According to the US DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency), there are an average of 273 IED incidents around the world every month, excluding Iraq and Afghanistan. A recent incident occurred at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport where a suicide bomber blew himself up in the arrivals area.
IEDs, as the name suggests, can be cooked up from easily available ingredients like ammonium nitrate (fertiliser), petrol, vaseline, nails, ball-bearings, mercury (thermometers) and so on. Cellphones, clocks, sulphuric acid, and cannibalised printed circuit boards (PCB) from various electronic devices can be used to make detonators, including remote and time-delayed detonators. The degree of sophistication of an IED depends on the maker’s skill and knowledge.
Since the sources of manufacture cannot be controlled, R&D is focused on detection and damage-limitation. What further complicates the task is that a large proportion of IEDs are non-metallic or low metallic in nature and hence, not picked up easily by metal detectors.
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Between 2004-2010, the Pentagon is estimated to have spent over $19 billion in research aiming to detect IEDs. One development has been a better understanding of the nature of odours. Most chemicals, especially unstable ones like those used in IEDs, leave trace molecules in the air. They can be smelled or chemically detected, given sufficiently sensitive equipment .
Many large airports possess chemical sniffers, which can be used to detect IED materials, and narcotic drugs. Sniffer devices can be described as miniaturised chemical labs. These conduct rapid automated tests for a pre-set list of chemicals. Some sniffers are set up as walk-through booths at airports, or in other sensitive areas. Others are hand-helds, still others involve taking swabbed samples from the suspect object (or person) and analysing for trace chemicals.
Unfortunately, chemical detectors aren’t close to emulating nature. As a result, the fallback options are biological. In the old days, coal miners would take canaries down the shaft because canaries are hyper-sensitive to methane. They die of suffocation long before humans realise there’s a problem.
IED-detection via olfactory means depends heavily on sniffer dogs. Canines (“K-9s” in jargon) are far more effective and efficient than the best available devices. They can smell lower concentrations of trace chemicals and they also can be trained to alert for a wider range of substances.
Plants are also very sensitive to changes in environmental chemical composition. This has led to some interesting experiments. Plants are extensively used to raise the alarm for a vast range of toxic and radioactive pollutants in air, soil and water.
Spiderworts for instance, and the common onion as well, are both good detectors of toxic pollutants, according to Nato, which has sponsored a vast amount of research in this area. Pollution causes genetic mutations and changes in growth patterns. However, monitoring genetic mutation is a slow, laborious process and hence, unsuitable for the purposes of IED detection, where seconds count.
A new experimental technique appears to have found a much more effective visual signal. A team from Colorado State University (CSU) led by Dr June Medford has developed a strain of hydrangeas, which have a modified “de-greening circuit”. In the presence of certain trace chemicals, the green leaves turn white instantaneously. Once the substance is removed, the plant will “regreen”.
Medford’s team modified the DNA receptors of the plants to respond this way to specific chemicals in the atmosphere. They believe the method could be used to detect an entire range of pollutants as well as IED explosives. The new modified receptor proteins can be inserted into any plant DNA so aesthetics need not be compromised when these detectors are deployed. The idea is eventually to just put potted plants in various places and keep an eye on them for colour changes.
The CSU team estimates its experimental results will take another three or four years to move from the level of lab proof of concept in controlled conditions, to real-world utilisation. One problem is that ammonium nitrate in particular is used extensively as fertiliser. So it may not be possible to detect it in this fashion. However, in conjunction with other methods, the (de)green option could become one of the most effective and non-intrusive ways to implement security.