A lot of people around me tend to parrot that a lot of the safety measures are not for explosives detection, but for drug trafficking prevention. I’ve always disagreed because nobody ever presented any evidence to it, and the measures in place do come from explosive detection (unless they have metal drugs now idk).
But I’ve wondered whether there is some truth to it.
I’ve watched a video about this recently. The problem is, most detectors were based on X-rays in the past decades. Liquid explosives are pretty close to the density (and/or other properties) of water, and you can’t tell for sure whether there’s toothpaste or boom juice in that tube.
However, some airports started using expensive MRI MRI like X-ray* machines that can see stuff in more detail, plus, it lets you to make cross sections from different angles and therefore have a 3D model that you can rotate on your screen (it’s rather cool).
EDIT: I just realised someone else linked this, too. I would leave it here, it’s still educational.
A lot of people around me tend to parrot that a lot of the safety measures are not for explosives detection, but for drug trafficking prevention. I’ve always disagreed because nobody ever presented any evidence to it, and the measures in place do come from explosive detection (unless they have metal drugs now idk). But I’ve wondered whether there is some truth to it.
I’ve watched a video about this recently. The problem is, most detectors were based on X-rays in the past decades. Liquid explosives are pretty close to the density (and/or other properties) of water, and you can’t tell for sure whether there’s toothpaste or boom juice in that tube.
However, some airports started using expensive
MRIMRI like X-ray* machines that can see stuff in more detail, plus, it lets you to make cross sections from different angles and therefore have a 3D model that you can rotate on your screen (it’s rather cool).EDIT: I just realised someone else linked this, too. I would leave it here, it’s still educational.