Is This a Good Idea? Full-Body Scans at Airports?

May 29, 2009

A lot of the time, I blog in this space about speculative inventions and applications of technology, such as bacteria-sized medical robots or transoceanic underwater maglev trains. This week, however, we’re going to look at a controversial technology that is already here: active millimeter-wave full-body imaging, which penetrates clothing to reveal anything concealed beneath the fabric, from hidden objects to the human body itself. The federal Transportation Security Administration already is using such scanners at 19 airports across the nation to thwart terrorists trying to sneak bombs or weapons through security checkpoints.

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