Science! By Graham Templeton Jun. 8, 2014 10:15 am
When forensic investigators first started using sophisticated ballistics analysis to identify criminals, it was viewed as an incredible insight. Just a pattern of scratches on a hunk of half-destroyed metal could link a gun to a bullet — amazing!
Today, impressing people is much more difficult; DNA evidence in particular has given us the sense that physical evidence can be analyzed to almost unlimited effect. Still, investigators often have trouble tracing evidence back to its source in any useful way, often in the most serious of cases. But what if trace amounts of explosive, say, could be identified and tracked as easily as a firearm? That’s the goal of new research published this week, which uses nanoparticles to put an invisible, indestructible barcode in just about any object imaginable.
Of course, this is only metaphorically a barcode. In reality, the researchers input a unique mixture of concentrations of four nanoparticles with different specific melting points. This creates a sort of thermal barcode that can be used to create an almost unlimited number of unique identifying combinations. In one demonstration the team marked a batch of TNT with the nanoparticles, and found that their signature was identifiable even after they detonated the explosives.
These nano particles can even survive an explosion.
If the nanoparticles are shown not to affect the function of many chemicals, this could be the beginning of a new era in forensics. After all, while some pre-explosive substances are very difficult to acquire (and thus easy to track back to a supplier) many are as common as dirt. If detectives could collect a sample of explosive residue and track it back to both the supplier and, potentially, the point of sale, terror investigations could become much more efficient very quickly. If deployed widely enough this could limit anonymous domestic bomb-making to fertilizer and similar natural products, putting*virtually all industrial chemicals off-limits.
The nanoparticles could also be used to trace drugs or money. It would be a lot harder to “destroy” a shipment of a pharmaceuticals if drug busts can*identify the exact shipping history of*a particular pill. Counterfeiting would also be far more difficult, requiring counterfeiters to acquire a complex mix of these nanoparticles; you might be able to print out the perfect bank note, but all the artistry in the world won’t fool melting point analysis.
Nanoparticles are actually only one way we could possibly tag up our future. Another uses fluorescent tags for a more literal barcode, and still others do literal engraving on the micro-scale. These nanoparticles are much more rugged and versatile, however, able to be mixed into a batch of some larger substance very easily, and maintaining their signature for very long periods of time. We can imagine giving a nano signature to every batch of concrete, turning the gravel in your tire treads into a detailed travelogue.
Note that this technique does require that we melt a very small portion of the object we wish to identify, so don’t think you’ll be tagging your Xbox One controllers (or little brothers) any time soon. Still, this has enormous potential to let manufacturers tag their products for later identification. Perhaps in the future, guns will be identified with a tiny shavings of metal rather than from a serial number on the side, giving inanimate objects a sort of man-made genome for easy identification.
Of course, this all begs the question: who will track all these millions of unique identifying tags? Will manufacturers each maintain their own database for requests from law enforcement? Will some keep such records for 5 years, and others for 10? The government might be obliged to step in and maintain any such records itself, simply for the sake of efficiency.
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Today, impressing people is much more difficult; DNA evidence in particular has given us the sense that physical evidence can be analyzed to almost unlimited effect. Still, investigators often have trouble tracing evidence back to its source in any useful way, often in the most serious of cases. But what if trace amounts of explosive, say, could be identified and tracked as easily as a firearm? That’s the goal of new research published this week, which uses nanoparticles to put an invisible, indestructible barcode in just about any object imaginable.
Of course, this is only metaphorically a barcode. In reality, the researchers input a unique mixture of concentrations of four nanoparticles with different specific melting points. This creates a sort of thermal barcode that can be used to create an almost unlimited number of unique identifying combinations. In one demonstration the team marked a batch of TNT with the nanoparticles, and found that their signature was identifiable even after they detonated the explosives.
These nano particles can even survive an explosion.If the nanoparticles are shown not to affect the function of many chemicals, this could be the beginning of a new era in forensics. After all, while some pre-explosive substances are very difficult to acquire (and thus easy to track back to a supplier) many are as common as dirt. If detectives could collect a sample of explosive residue and track it back to both the supplier and, potentially, the point of sale, terror investigations could become much more efficient very quickly. If deployed widely enough this could limit anonymous domestic bomb-making to fertilizer and similar natural products, putting*virtually all industrial chemicals off-limits.
The nanoparticles could also be used to trace drugs or money. It would be a lot harder to “destroy” a shipment of a pharmaceuticals if drug busts can*identify the exact shipping history of*a particular pill. Counterfeiting would also be far more difficult, requiring counterfeiters to acquire a complex mix of these nanoparticles; you might be able to print out the perfect bank note, but all the artistry in the world won’t fool melting point analysis.
Nanoparticles are actually only one way we could possibly tag up our future. Another uses fluorescent tags for a more literal barcode, and still others do literal engraving on the micro-scale. These nanoparticles are much more rugged and versatile, however, able to be mixed into a batch of some larger substance very easily, and maintaining their signature for very long periods of time. We can imagine giving a nano signature to every batch of concrete, turning the gravel in your tire treads into a detailed travelogue.
Note that this technique does require that we melt a very small portion of the object we wish to identify, so don’t think you’ll be tagging your Xbox One controllers (or little brothers) any time soon. Still, this has enormous potential to let manufacturers tag their products for later identification. Perhaps in the future, guns will be identified with a tiny shavings of metal rather than from a serial number on the side, giving inanimate objects a sort of man-made genome for easy identification.
Of course, this all begs the question: who will track all these millions of unique identifying tags? Will manufacturers each maintain their own database for requests from law enforcement? Will some keep such records for 5 years, and others for 10? The government might be obliged to step in and maintain any such records itself, simply for the sake of efficiency.
More...
