The Conversation

The science of airport bomb detection: mass spectrometry

14-12-2014 Author: The Conversation

Mass spectrometry will identify those explosive molecules.Marcia Cirillo/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

You’ve probably had your hand luggage swabbed after walking through the metal detector at the airport. Whatever molecules were picked up by the swab have been separated using gas chromatography. So how do airport staff know if those molecules are...

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