Counterfeiting

​Different types of whiskies can be chemically very similar, to the point that standard tests sometimes can't tell them apart. With that in mind, researchers have developed what's being described as a synthetic tongue – it scientifically differentiates between whiskies via their "flavor."

​At a glance, a sheet of paper may seem very uniform. Look closer, however, and you'll see that it's made up of a random jumble of tiny interwoven wood particles. Scientists have taken advantage of that fact, using each jumble as a "texture fingerprint" for authenticating individual paper items.

​Is that a real Rolex, or a fake? Thanks to research currently being carried out at Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) research institute, an ultraviolet lamp may soon be all that you need to tell the difference between luxury watches and knock-offs.

Security holograms can currently take days to create, using expensive equipment. That could be about to change, however, as scientists have developed a hologram production method that utilizes a regular inkjet printer.​

Although barcodes are currently utilized mainly to keep track of merchandise, they may soon also be used to detect counterfeit goods. We're not talking about ordinary barcodes, however. Instead, scientists have devised a new 3D barcode that's actually molded into plastic or composite items.

Researchers from Vanderbilt University have created the world's smallest continuous spirals. The spirals exhibit a set of very specific optical properties that would be difficult to fake, making them ideal for use in identity cards or other items where authenticity is paramount.

British scientists have already looked to principles employed by butterfly wings, as a means of thwarting currency counterfeiters. Now, researchers from China's Southeast University have developed another such technology, that's inspired by a different insect – a color-changing longhorn beetle.

A durable nanomaterial that uses a consumer's breath to reveal a hidden image is the result of research that could lead to new counterfeit prevention techniques, which are unable to be mimicked by outsiders.

Scientists from Switzerland's ETH Zurich research group have come up with a possible method of thwarting the makers of that counterfeit olive oil – just add synthetic DNA particles to the real thing. And yes, consumers would proceed to swallow those particles.

There's now yet another potential weapon in the war against counterfeiting. Scientists at MIT have developed tiny color-striped microparticles that could be used to verify the authenticity of currency, medication, consumer goods, or almost anything else.

Counterfeiting is a growing problem, and has led to the development of various countermeasures. One of their drawbacks, however, is the fact that they can be quite complex. Now, scientists have come up with something simpler – tiny jumbles of nanowires that form item-specific "fingerprints."

Scientists at the Technology Transfer Unit of Portugal's University of Aveiro are developing DNA "barcodes" that can be applied to products, then subsequently read as a means of identification.