Trillionth Of A Gram Of Narcotics
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» moondancer replied on Wed Oct 12, 2005 @ 5:56am |
 Coolness: 92305 | This new system can detect up to a trillionth of a gram of narcotics. If you're going to the airport you better wash every possesion you have until it's spick and span and make sure not to pass by anyone smoking weed along the way.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Oct. 5 -- Fast, highly reliable detection of residues that could indicate the presence of explosives and other hazardous materials inside luggage is now possible with technology under development at Purdue University. A research team led by R. Graham Cooks has found a way to determine the presence on a surface of trace quantities of chemicals -- such as those found in biological and chemical warfare agents, as well as several common explosives -- within a few seconds. The researchers' method uses a tool common in many chemistry and biology labs -- a mass spectrometer -- that has been modified to analyze samples directly from the environment rather than requiring the lengthy pretreatment that laboratory mass spectrometry samples typically require. According to Cooks, no portable device is currently on the market that can analyze samples in this manner. The team had previously developed a prototype device that detects nanogram-sized samples, but with recent improvements the device has proven successful at detecting at the picogram (trillionths of a gram) level in lab tests, about 1000 times less material than previously required. Cooks said he thinks a portable tool based on the technology could prove valuable for security in public places worldwide. "In the amount of time it requires to take a breath, this technology can sniff the surface of a piece of luggage and determine whether a hazardous substance is likely to be inside, based on residual chemicals brushed from the hand of someone loading the suitcase," said Cooks, who is the Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry in Purdue's College of Science. "We think it could be useful in screening suspect packages in airports, train stations and other places where there have been problems in the past. Because the technology works on other surfaces, such as skin and clothing, as well, it also could help determine whether an individual has been involved in the handling of these chemicals." J.L. Beauchamp, a chemist at the California Institute of Technology who has worked in mass spectrometry for more than four decades, said the team's research on desorption electrospray ionization, or DESI, can solve a number of problems. "The nature of explosive materials has made them difficult to detect with mass spectrometry," said Beauchamp, who is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences. "Cooks' group has solved this problem with DESI, and combined with recent developments in the field has developed what may be a practical and widely deployable method for detecting and positively identifying not only explosives, but also a wide range of substances that might be employed by terrorist groups." The research announcement appeared last week as an accelerated article in the journal Analytical Chemistry's Web site. Cooks developed the method with the assistance of his Purdue colleagues Ismael Cotte-Rodríguez, Zoltán Takáts, Nari Talaty and Huanwen Chen. Mass spectrometers are the workhorses of many chemistry labs because they can deliver highly accurate and reliable analyses of substances interesting to scientists, including pharmaceutical developers. The devices also are often used by law enforcement to test suspicious looking residues that could indicate the presence of explosives or drugs inside packages. But most mass spectrometers are unwieldy, cabinet-sized machines that require samples to undergo hours of intensive preparation before testing, which can be a problem if officials need to test a large number of containers quickly. "A mass spectrometer is one of the best tools we've got, but scientists have known for years that without a way to streamline the analytical process, mass spectrometry will have limited use in the field," said Talaty, a graduate student in Cooks' lab. "But with the present technology, we can now analyze samples rapidly, without any pretreatment. It has already been used to analyze pharmaceuticals at up to three samples per second." Cooks' team has made several strides in improving mass spectrometry over the past few years, having found ways to both decrease the size of the spectrometers and analyze samples rapidly under standard environmental conditions. Their most recent work with DESI, which involves directing a spray of reactive chemicals onto a surface to dislodge suspicious chemicals and sucking the mixture into a spectrometer for analysis, has allowed them to detect hazardous substances at unprecedentedly low quantities and with equally unprecedented speed. "Trace and residue analysis of explosives has been a difficult task due to deliberate concealment, the small quantities of material available and the presence of other compounds that can interfere with the analysis," said Cotte-Rodríguez, also a graduate student in Cooks' lab. "But the 'spray' technique we use, combined with small tandem mass spectrometers that can confirm the identity of a particular explosive, gives this method both unusual sensitivity and quick turnaround time, even compared with what we achieved earlier this year." Talaty said the team's forthcoming spectrometry gear, which will weigh less than 25 lb, fits into a backpack and returns a negligible number of false readings, both factors that are also important to law enforcement officials. The small instrument is currently being fitted to work with the DESI ionization method described in the team's paper. "You don't want to lug around gear that you can't carry on your person, and once you get it to a site, you want it to give you the straight story on what you're looking at and be able to confirm it," he said. "This technology can do both." Although DESI sensors still have difficulty classifying compounds with many different components, he said, this limitation would not likely be much of an issue in bomb detection because explosives do not generally contain that many. "If you tried to detect a particular compound out of a mixture of thousands of different substances, you might begin to see the limitations of this method," Talaty said. "But real-world explosives are not that complex. In any case, the sensitivity of DESI is high enough that officials could find what they need to if it's there. No system is flawless, but if we deployed this technology to transportation centers throughout the world, it would make it far more difficult for terrorists to get away with planting bombs where people congregate." Cooks' team is associated with several research centers at or affiliated with Purdue, including the Bindley Bioscience Center, the Indiana Instrumentation Institute, Inproteo (formerly the Indiana Proteomics Consortium) and the Center for Sensing Science and Technology. This research was sponsored in part by Inproteo, Prosolia and the Office of Naval Research. For more information, visit: [ www.purdue.edu ] |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» mdc replied on Wed Oct 12, 2005 @ 9:04pm |
 Coolness: 148855 | yeah im not reading that |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» BeAtJuNkIe replied on Wed Oct 12, 2005 @ 10:04pm |
 Coolness: 48495 | fucking narcs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Mico replied on Wed Oct 12, 2005 @ 10:16pm |
 Coolness: 150500 | Originally posted by MDC...
yeah im not reading that lol |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» moondancer replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 2:30am |
| Coolness: 92305 | aww man, I had a feeling ppl would be too lazy to read it, whatever, all you need to know is that they can detect a trillionth of a gram of narcotics with this thing. meaning, suck for everyone, even housewives. They'll get strip searched cause their kid smoked weed wearing their mom's sweater and left an invisible crumb on it or soemthing. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Mico replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 3:35am |
| Coolness: 150500 | OK... this is good to know...
... but since I didn't read the article... Did it say anything about checking mail? Because I need to send some 'shit' overseas, and I don't want it to go to waste. ... Know what I mean?? |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» moondancer replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 3:45am |
| Coolness: 92305 | It doesn't say anything about when or if it will be used. I assume that eventually, at least in one country or another it will be, but by this time those decisions must still be pending. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» moondancer replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 3:46am |
| Coolness: 92305 | so you should probably send it sooner than later. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Mico replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 3:52am |
| Coolness: 150500 | Yeah... I figured our government wouldn't be able affored that shit until 2030.
But i'm still curious... How safe is it to send E -crushed up- by mail? |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» moondancer replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 4:15am |
| Coolness: 92305 | I could tell you a couple of ways I've known it to be done in the past, but they may be outdated methods. A couple of years ago I knew people who were shipping relatively large quantities of powdered substances by putting it inside a teddy bear. They would also put it in layers of bags, and between each layer was fleecy wipes, just in case a dog's nose could really be that strong. That was a couple of years ago, and not by international mail. For international mail I've known people who exchanged small amounts of drugs (acid for e) between here and some country in Europe can't remember which, and what they'd do is put it in c.d cases. The acid would be tucked into the edges inside, and for e I don't remember, maybe inside the hollow part on the left, after opening it up. I wouldn't trust those methods though without knowing how airport security has updated. I know in Canada we're really bad with mail security, most stuff gets through without being checked, bu you know, who wants to count on that. I have to go pick up this mornign though. My dealer has been dealing for 30 years and has done practically everything, so I'll ask him if he could give any good advice. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Mico replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 4:28am |
| Coolness: 150500 | ...I could use any good advice right about now. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» soyfunk replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 8:36am |
 Coolness: 126810 | i buy alot of stuff by mail order and through the internet
alot of the time the envelope or packaging looks like it's been opened and resealed |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» moondancer replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 11:07am |
| Coolness: 92305 | In any case, his advice was that x-rays can't see through lead, so to use lead packaging of some sort. I think thats what they use to protect computer parts? and he also suggested taking a big hard/fat-cover book, cutting open the bottom of the cover, squeezing it in there, and then slapping on a new cover to hide the slit. and also not to ship to Britian or the United States. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Nuclear replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 3:00pm |
 Coolness: 2604025 | don't crush it up... use a cd case and put them in on the sice which opens and closes... you can put about 10 pills in one cd case. The make it look like a cd, put a cd in there and ship it... voila... |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» BeAtJuNkIe replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 3:07pm |
| Coolness: 48495 | it wont work for us shipments...all cd's from non certified businesses must be in a paper wrap instead of a case |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Screwhead replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 3:36pm |
 Coolness: 685630 | Buy some casettes at the dollar store and open 'em up, take the tape out of one of them, replace with pills, close, re-seal, then send away! |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» nothingnopenope replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 5:26pm |
 Coolness: 201265 | if you were sending off tons of pills that were worth a lot of money.. you could ship them inside a mac mini.. those things are practically IMPOSSIBLE to open unless you have very specific tools. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Mico replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 6:09pm |
| Coolness: 150500 | ... well, I don't have a mini mac, and i'm only sending off about 2-pills, 2-3 CDs and a birthday Card in a package that is going to France.
I like Noahs idea best. But do they have X-Rays that would pick up amphetamines or even notice pill-like objects on the side of the case? |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» moondancer replied on Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 11:48pm |
| Coolness: 92305 | they have x-rays, that's what the lead is for. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Nuclear replied on Fri Oct 14, 2005 @ 2:28am |
| Coolness: 2604025 | i've done it before and it worked... but i'm not responsible if it does not work... |
Trillionth Of A Gram Of Narcotics
[ Top Of Page ] |
Post A Reply |
You must be logged in to post a reply.
[ Top Of Page ] |
