There are two things which many people don’t like while going through an airport scanning procedure. One is those X-rays, which poses some danger to skin cells due to their ionization capability and second nuisance is that of taking their shoes.
But, the good news has come from Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, US, which claims a breakthrough in generating a safe mode of electromagnetic radiation called T-rays or terahertz radiation through a compact battery-operated device.
Although T-rays are not as capable as X-rays in penetrating metals or some other solid materials , but deserve preference on the basis of low energy, which poses no ill effect on the subject alike X-ray’s cellular damage or radiation sickness and efficient to peep inside common materials, such as leather, fabric, cardboard and paper.
This has been possible through a typical method of producing t-rays–which lie between infrared light and microwaves on the electromagnetic spectrum and frequencies between about 0.5 and 4.0 terahertz, which was quite a bit difficult task but successfully achieved by using high-temperature superconducting crystals grown at the University of Tsukuba in Japan.
Availability of light waves with a frequency in the terahertz range with cheap devices not only improves airport security system, but is also ideal for sensing tooth decay and skin cancer.
Via: Reuters
