Detector

The humble X-ray may have received a long-overdue upgrade thanks to the development of a highly sensitive, printable X-ray detector that can operate over a wide range of energy levels, with potential in a wide range of real-world applications.

Although smartphones perform many tasks on their own, they're also able to make devices such as drones, robots and cameras cheaper and/or more capable by acting as their "brains." One of the latest gadgets to receive such a treatment is the humble – and potentially treasure-finding – metal detector.

Joseph Wang and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego have created a ring with a difference. It detects chemical and biological threats in the wearer's environment.​

Researchers from the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Spain claim to have created a graphene-based photodetector that converts light into electricity in under 50 quadrillionths of a second. This may give rise to a new range of super-efficient, ultrafast electronic components.

With more goods passing through the world's shipping terminals and airports than ever before, hunting explosives is a bottleneck. To help US counterterrorism efforts, GE has developed RFID stickers that act as wireless, battery-free explosives detectors that can be placed almost anywhere.

FreshAir's AirGuard uses sophisticated polymer technology to detect and rat out illicit tobacco and marijuana smokers. Targeted at the hotel market, AirGuard could also be a big hit in workplaces, public housing, college dorms, jails and anywhere else where smoking is restricted.

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan (U-M) have created an ultrathin graphene-based light detector that has the potential to put infrared heat detecting technology into a contact lens.

SaveOneLife is a wearable mine detector that fits in a shoe and warns the wearer if and where a potentially deadly landmine might lurk nearby.

The largest single piece of experimental scientific apparatus is CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The LHC's ATLAS detector, one of two that discovered the Higgs boson, has a control building adorned with a magnificent mural. How it happened is a fascinating glimpse at the crossroads of art and science.

MTM's Special Ops RAD watch includes an integrated Geiger-Müller tube for measuring not only single-dose gamma ray levels, but also cumulative exposure from 0.0001 to 9999 millisieverts and dose equivalent rates up to 4,000 microsieverts per hour.

A prototype explosives-detecting boarding gate promises not to interrupt the flow of passengers boarding a plane.

The SAPER mobile app uses a phone's magnetometer to remotely detect 40 different kinds of explosive materials.