Terahertz Radiation Could Improve Airport Security, Detect Cancer

Since the attacks of 9/11, airport security has never been more difficult. Passengers can expect to take off their shoes, have their toothpaste checked, be examined, rechecked, and repacked.

In a recent press release, researchers announced that they have found a safe way to administer electromagnetic radiation that could avoid all of these hassles - while detecting unsafe items headed toward an airplane plus the same device could used to detect cancer.

Research scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, working in collaboration with scientists in Japan and Turkey, recently detailed their findings. Together, they have developed a small device that is battery-operated, compact, and portable. This new device uses T-rays, or terahertz radiation.

Terahertz radiation is the name that scientists have given to radiation devices that work somewhere in between the frequency of microwaves and infrared radiation.

Terahertz radiation is so sensitive that they can safely go through clothing, paper, cardboard, leather, ceramics, plastic, wood, and a myriad of other substances, but T-rays cannot penetrate metal or water. They work much more like radio waves than x-rays or other forms of radiation.

All of the scientific studies that have been performed using this type of radiation show that it is safe and does not have side effects. Unlike typical x-rays, T-rays do not produce enough energy to affect any electrons. Electrons are minute particles that combine to form substances. Indeed, the very thing that typically causes cancer patients to become ill is the body's reaction to having electrons disrupted in their body.

Using T-rays, airport security could become vastly quicker and better since T-rays could penetrate clothing. T-rays could identify a host of illegal or hazardous substances by altering its identification patterns. In layman's terms, the T-ray could be set up to identify things of a certain density that were pre-programmed into the T-ray scanner.

There are literally hundreds of potential uses for T-rays in the medical field. This includes using T-rays for dental x-rays, replacing any traditional x-ray with a T-ray, and eventually using T-rays to treat cancer.

While avoid technical terms, T-rays can be added together, stacked if you will, so that their rays can have different degrees of penetration. By using this technology, physicians can treat specific cancers in a manner that is far safer than today's radiation techniques.

This research project was funded by Argonne's Laboratory directed Research and Development Funds, and by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The results of this study have been published in the journal, Science.

Sources:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/535615/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terahertz_radiation