A clever device used to detect the quality of wine could soon lift the current restrictions on taking liquids aboard aeroplanes. The Wine Scanner was developed by Matthew Augustine, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Davis, USA It can determine whether wine has spoiled without opening the bottle (detecting oxidation products or vinegar and maderization products or acetaldehyde - which can make a wine smell and taste like nail polish remover).
It works in a similar way to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners used in hospitals, combining a pulse of radio waves and a strong magnetic field to determine the chemical structure of the wine.
After a thwarted 2006 plot in which terrorists planned to carry liquid explosives on board at least 10 transatlantic airliners (which lead to a ban on taking large quantities of liquids on flights), Augustine started looking into whether magnetic resonance could be used to identify more than bad wine. Early tests showed that his wine-analysis technique could distinguish gasoline or other dangerous liquids from toothpaste or shampoo etc.
But the challenge was to design a system suitable for use in airports: relatively small, easy and quick to use, and capable of scanning containers in a wide range of sizes and shapes, from lipsticks to water bottles.
UC Davis is the lead subcontractor on the project. The contractor is Defense Capital Advisers LLC of Denver, which has a sub license from Madison Avenue Management to develop Augustine's technology for airport security.
Augustine has been adapting the technology to cope with different bottle materials, including metallic canned drinks cans and once a commercial-grade version is operative passengers will be able to have their liquids scanned and the contents verified. It's likely that size limits on liquids carries could go too, as they'll be effectively redundant.
http://bordeaux-undiscovered.blogspot.com/2011/02/wine-scanner-to-be-used-at-airports.html (http://bordeaux-undiscovered.blogspot.com/2011/02/wine-scanner-to-be-used-at-airports.html)
"Mr. Spock, scan for life signs and a good bordeaux"
Oh, thank God, for a moment there I thought they were banning booze from airports...