Nano Tech Promises To Become A Powerful Crime Fighter
Nanotechnology is becoming more and more popular and scientists are experimenting with various uses for the technology, including fighting crime. Cranfield University’s Professor Anthony Turner has developed a chip using nanotechnology that is able to analyze body fluids and detect certain molecules of specific drugs.
The plastic instrument, which uses “supra molecular technology,” would be provided to police officers in order to allow them to test criminals suspected of substance use, a portable laboratory contained in a pen-like device.
Nanosolutions of Germany has developed a method of lacing rare earths such as lanthanum and yttrium into ink in order to create a document verification system: The particles could be used in inks for money, passports, and at embassies, allowing easy verification for sensitive documents by passing them under ultraviolet light in order to reveal ghost images.
Applied DNA Sciences has created a system to help curb textile fraud in the United States. The company’s anti-counterfeit device marks textiles, raw materials, threads, or finished products with a type of plant DNA; using the verification procedures, companies and the government can identify the origin of textiles that would help prevent illegal textiles from entering the country.
Companies developing nanotechnology security devices are more often marketing them towards the corporate world in order to increase production, decreasing costs.
Lower costs will encourage law enforcement agencies to be able to take advantage of the technology that would be cost-prohibitive without corporate investment.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Small Times (10/03); Oger, Genevieve.
