Polarisers may enhance remote chemical detection
Thursday, March 12, 2009 - 08:14
in Astronomy & Space
Chemists can analyse the composition of a suspected bomb - without actually touching and possibly detonating it - using a technique called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, or LIBS. The tool is also commonly used for 'stand-off' detection in such harsh or potentially dangerous environments as blast furnaces, nuclear reactors and biohazard sites and on unmanned planetary probes like the Mars rovers...