Polarizers may enhance remote chemical detection
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - 11:56
in Astronomy & Space
Chemists can analyze 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.