Terrorists arriving? Only the nose knows

**Ebusitanus** · March 31, 2009, 03:58 AM

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...7-2703,00.html

LAW enforcement agencies are seeking scientists to develop an artificial nose that can detect the smell of fear as terrorists pass through security at airports.

John Harlow

March 30, 2009

The US Department of Homeland Security is advertising for specialists to devise airport scanners that will sniff out "deceptive individuals".

The technology builds on recent breakthroughs in finding human scent-prints which, many researchers believe, may be as unique as fingerprints.

Body odours also change perceptibly according to mood. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have already produced a gel that acts like the smell receptors in the human nose. Now they are trying to create a version that can isolate the smell of adrenalin, the stress hormone, so that nervous passengers or those with a guilty conscience can be singled out.

Homeland Security wants a device that compares odours with scents collected from crime scenes and held in a "smell bank" which, like DNA or fingerprints, could be used in court.

Last week, officials said they only wanted to explore the possibilities but scientists are predicting it is only a matter of time before police will be able to sniff out crime artificially.

Kenneth Furton, who is assembling a smell bank at Florida International University in Miami, said chemists could identify human smells by race, age and environment.

Professor Furton is also seeking body odours that mark people out as depressed. Other chemists are looking for the signature smells of cancers, asthma and other diseases.

Such advances could also be an additional tool in paternity cases, as family members give off a similar scent.

One barrier to better security through sniffing is perfume. Detectors will have to be adapted to screen out molecules in perfumes that mask natural smells and confuse detector dogs.

Natural scents can be boosted by stress, which releases hormones from armpits and hands. The odour can then spread in 6m clouds to cling to clothes, furniture and walls.

**Marie Louise von Preussen** · March 31, 2009, 04:02 AM

Clearly, another method to hamper innocent and nervous passengers while the truly dangerous terrorists will find a loophole and go unnoticed. Besides, a good measure of the Big Brother society that we seem to be approaching thanks to fear and hi-tech control devices combined with gradually stricter and draconian laws.

**Conquistatore** · March 31, 2009, 04:10 AM

It sounds terrifying. To think that you will be 'sniff scanned' like this as you go through an Airport. The fact they want to develop a 'smell bank' is amusing in title and scary aswell. Desperate times call for desperate measures I suppose, but just how far will we go to root out the terrorists? At what point does the public or society in general become subject to such tough laws/checks/regulations that they refuse to travel or are scared to because they might be suspected of being a terrorist.

I think perhaps tighter security, more security personnel, more security checkpoints will be more effective and less stressful on the innocent public than such an extreme method like this.

**s.rwitt** · March 31, 2009, 10:36 AM

Why don't they just smell for horrible body odor?

**Orko** · March 31, 2009, 10:46 AM

we don't need noses that smell fear! what we need are brain scanners.

**Time Commander Bob** · March 31, 2009, 01:00 PM

What if someone is nervous about going on a plane because they are scared of flying? Will the smell-detector label them a "terrorist"? What if someone is in a hurry and is therefore nervous?

This seems to me like a pointless waste of money and will only waste the time of innocents that will be inevitably labeled "terrorists". We should not create a society where the government suspects every citizen of being a wrongdoer.

**Mikelus Trento** · March 31, 2009, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by Time Commander Bob

What if someone is nervous about going on a plane because they are scared of flying? Will the smell-detector label them a "terrorist"? What if someone is in a hurry and is therefore nervous?

Good point, cuz it fits me to a T.

**Conquistatore** · March 31, 2009, 04:20 PM

What if someone is nervous about going on a plane because they are scared of flying? Will the smell-detector label them a "terrorist"? What if someone is in a hurry and is therefore nervous?

We should not create a society where the government suspects every citizen of being a wrongdoer.

I totally agree. It is bad enough trying to get through all the security and random checks at an airport. The last thing the public needs is another method of terrorist detection for them to go through. I think the research they are doing could have some benefits in charting disease and other health problems like the article mentioned, but to be used to weed out terrorists by telling they are stressed or lying.. come on.