NEW YORK- Scientists in the U.S. have developed a technology that can detect or trace amount of explosives, drugs and many other substances through fingerprints.
Reports say that researchers from Purdue University in Indianapolis, U.S., made this known in a statement issued on Saturday in New York.
They said that their new technology known as “electros pray ionization, or DESI” can also distinguish between overlapping fingerprints left by different individuals.
Prof. Graham Cooks, the lead researcher, said: “DESI can read a fingerprint’s chemical signature to determine what a person recently handled”.
“The classic example of a fingerprint is an ink imprint showing the unique swirls and loops used for identification.
“But, fingerprints also leave behind a unique distribution of molecular compounds,” it quoted Cooks as saying.
He also said: “Some of the residues left behind are from naturally occurring compounds in the skin and some are from other surfaces or materials a person has touched”.
It was learnt that the study included Purdue post-doctoral researcher Demian Ifa and graduate students Nicholas Manicke and Allison Dill is reported in the current edition of the journal “Science”.
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