Thomas G. Thundat and Jesse Adams.

• Localización: Scientific American, ISSN 0036-8733, Vol. 291, Nº. 6, 2004, págs. 47-47
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Discusses the development of bomb detectors by Thomas G. Thundat, senior research scientist and leader of the nanoscale science and devices group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Jesse Adams, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Nevada at Reno. Bomb-sniffing dogs and mass-spectrometer chemical analyzers have become common sights at airports, but security specialists long for smaller, cheaper detectors that don't need to be plied with biscuits. Last year a team led by physicist Thomas Thundat and mechanical engineer Jesse Adams demonstrated a new scheme for TNT detection that seems at first like a rather bad idea: heat the suspected explosive to 1,000 degrees Celsius and see whether it blows up. An electric heater then detonates the TNT, releasing the stress so that the cantilever snaps back to its starting position.