ALBUQUERQUE — Shampoo and toothpaste soon could return to an airport near you.
Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are developing a new type of scanner that can distinguish liquids – blaring out a warning for bad ones, such as explosives, while letting through good ones, such as water.
The device can detect about 50 liquids. When commercialized it should cost about the same as a normal airport X-ray scanner, said Michelle Espy, a Los Alamos scientist.
“I hope this makes air travel easier and safer for people,” Espy said.
The scanner uses magnetic-resonance imaging to see signals from a variety of chemicals. The idea grew from a different project to create an inexpensive, portable hospital MRI, said Bob Kraus, another scientist on the project.
“When the London news about liquid explosives on planes hit the wires, we thought, ‘Gee, we might actually have a way to impact this,”‘ Kraus said. “It’s fascinating when one project transfers to another area like this did.”
About 50 people have been working part time on the device since fall 2006. It was funded through a $3.3 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security.
The group hopes to test the scanners first at the Albuquerque Sunport sometime after August.
