Science and technology can catch criminals and tackle terrorism. This week, we’re exploring two ways to sniff out concealed explosives and a new technique to lift fingerprints from surfaces that have been cleaned or burned. In the news, a new way to halt Hungtington's disease and how to indentify the influential online. Plus, could gene therapy cheat a DNA test?
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With the advent of global terrorism, it’s become apparent that people will go to extreme lengths to conceal bombs. So quickly and accurately detecting trace amounts of explosives could not only save lives, but it could make air travel safer, quicker and a lot more convenient. ...
Some substances, including drugs and explosives, can be concealed by dissolving them in another liquid such as an innocent looking bottle of spirits or packaging them inside an opaque container. This makes it very hard for security or border forces to find them without having t...
Any old bacteria won't do: to be healthy, an animal requires a unique consortium of microbes in its intestines, US scientists have revealed.
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Are you a leader or are you a follower? An intriguing new study shows how you can identify influential people from their activities on Facebook...
Huntington's Disease, a fatal inherited degenerative brain condition, can be controlled in animals using DNA technology, suggesting it might be reversible in humans too.
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We discover a diagnostics development unit resembling that of a star-trek sick bay to monitor many aspects of your body at once...
We discover a new chemical technique to find fingerprints in places that weren't possible before....
I've heard about honey bees sniffing out explosives, any updated information on this method?
What is to stop lots of terrorists each bringing very small amounts of liquid explosive and combining them in flight?
Is it possible to "sandpaper" fingerprints off a surface?
Dear Chris, a question from a podcast listener from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:
Is it theoretically possible that, in the future, a criminal could change his mouth inner layer cells DNA code (from where he knows a sample will be taken), so as not match anymore the code from the ha...
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