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The ability to efficiently and unobtrusively screen for trace amounts of explosives on airline passengers could improve travel safety – without invoking the ire of inconvenienced fliers. Toward that end, mechanical engineer and fluid dynamicist Matthew Staymates of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and colleagues have developed a prototype air sampling system that can quickly blow particles off the surfaces of shoes and suck them away for analysis.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers developing key new technology electronics like quantum computing or advanced detectors, as well as those studying basic material science and metal surface properties, often find their experiments plagued by excess electrical noise arising from the surfaces of metals in their equipment, a kind of distracting surface glitter.

Controlling the physical properties of the surfaces of materials, such as metals, is critical for industrial applications ranging non-stick frying pans to the fuselage of aircraft.