Friday, 18th May 2007 (2996 views)

Traditionally, fingerprints have primarily been used in order for the authorities to secure evidence and make prosecutions but thanks to gold nanotechnology, they may be able to tell much more about an individual.

A group of British scientists headed by David Russell have discovered that by utilising with a solution containing gold nanoparticles, items of information such as whether or not the individual is a smoker, if they take drugs and what food they have consumed, can all be gathered.

The scientists come from the University of East Anglia and London's King's College and have documented their findings in the journal Angewandte Chemie in an article entitled "Intelligent" Fingerprinting: Simultaneous Identifications of Drug Metabolites and Individuals by Using Antibody-Functionalised Nanoparticles.

In order to assess whether a person is a smoker or not using this new technology, the scientists used gold nanoparticles which are then coated in cotinine antibodies.

Consequently, smoker's fingerprints then fluoresce whereas non-smoker's do not. Sweat pores are also amplified under this technique which can help make an assessment.

In March it was announced that by using nanotechnology, hidden fingerprints could be highlighted, scientists at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem found.

 

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