Something interesting.....

[Qiaozhi]

... but remember all big things was uncomprehended in begining.

Hi Seeker,

Maybe - but there are many well-meaning individuals who firmly believe stuff that other more rational people would see as an insult to their intelligence. Unfortunately it is difficult to convince them otherwise, and eventually it becomes as painful as constantly knocking your head against the wall. Basically, my philosophy is to let them believe what they want. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

"Our capacity for self-deception has no known limits" - Michael Novak

[Dell Winders]

"WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE, CAN BE DONE" It's a fact. Denial is the self deception. Dell Winders

[maryyugo]

Sniffex has now been thoroughly tested and described- and it's a SCAM.

You can find more information about the tests at the links below with video clips of Sniffex failing to find explosives and on camera views of the President and Vice President of Homeland Safety International being unable to explain the failures.

Collection of about 30 minutes of videos:

http://sniffextest.blogspot.com/

(or simply search Youtube.com for "Sniffex" (no quotes))

Formal test description, background information, report of military testing here:

http://sniffexquestions.blogspot.com/

These are somewhat long reads but worthwhile if you think Sniffex detects explosives. Better reading than blowing yourself up trying this device on a real explosive detection task. And the company suggests it for detecting land mines in a mine field! I wish *they* would use it for that just once.

[maryyugo]

PS: contact with Thundat

I contacted Thundat and the group at Oakridge and their device is real, non-commercial at this point and has nothing to do with the Sniffex device sold by Homeland Safety International (HSFI). Strangely, the Oakridge prize winning scientists who developed the real explosive detector have been precluded by legal action from HSFI from calling it "Sniffex". Not fair.

[J_Player]

Two different sniffex -- One works, one does not...

It is true, there are two different sniffex explosive detectors. One is the "fake Sniffex", a long range locator developed by a Bulgarian engineer that fails to find explosives in a double blind test. The "fake sniffex" is currently the product behind a stock manipulation scam to collect money from investors.

The seccond snifex was developed by Oak Ridge National laboratories for the US department of energy, and received awards from the Oakridge National laboratory, the US department of energy, and R&D Magazine. This sniffex does not make any claims to locate explosives at long range. It takes an air sample in the vicinity of suspected explosives and uses electrochemical and microscopic mechanical methods to identify specific airborne molecules in trace amounts, similar to the method esteban described.


Why two sniffex detectors? There are two fascinating stories behind the sniffex, one for each version of the detector:

Story 1: The fake sniffex:
A Bulgarian engineer devised a LRL explosive detector which he claimed to detect explosives using the following "science":
"In operation, the signal generator is activated to emit an energy signal of a target material's characteristic frequency. The power level of the energy source will begin to activate the electrons of nitro-based materials that have the characteristic frequency generated. Once the target material is activated, it too will begin to emit a signal having the characteristic frequency of the signal generator."

The Bulgarian inventor of the sniffex was apparently unable to find anyone in his homeland to send large amounts of money his way. But he soon learned that he could make a profitable deal if he licensed his scam to wall street securities promoters: Lawyer and Shell Provider- G. David Gordon, and current sniffex CEO and sole officer- Paul Johnson. G. David Gordon has established a history of illegal and fraudulent business practices involving stock promotions which left his corporations bankrupt at the expense of the investors. Today, the sniffex stocks are being bought while investors are eager to invest in equipment that fights terrorism. But they obviously haven't seen the you-tube videos of the LRL failing the double-blind tests to locate explosives. See more interesting reading about the sniffex corporation at these links:
http://www.stocklemon.com/index.php?s=sniffex&submit= (stock lemon report)
https://www.otcstockinfo.com/reposit...658693_FR1.pdf (Sniffex corporate disclosure)

Story 2: The real sniffex:
The real sniffex cannot be called sniffex, because the fake sniffex reserved the name "Sniffex" by incorporating before the second sniffex scientists released their new product. The real sniffex was developed by Thomas Thundat, along with his team at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to detect traces of a variety of explosives, including plastic-based explosives. A micro-mechanical transducer, no wider than a human hair and with a mass of only a few nanograms, allows only explosive molecules to chemically adsorb to a sensor that can identify the molecule. SniffEx is an improvement over other explosive detection products (such as gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography/surface acoustic wave devices) because of its sub-part-per-trillion sensitivity and high selectivity, direct vapor sensing, low power consumption (the instrument uses a 9-volt battery), less than one-second response time, stability, compact size, and low cost.
How can a transducer do this? There is a long story behind Thomas Thundat's discoveries when he was experimenting with atomic force microscopes in 1991. His observations led him to developing a collection of microscopic electrochemical sensors that can detect not only explosives, but a large array of molecules that will prove very useful in medical diagnosis and other fields. His research is on the cutting edge of replicating an electronic version of sensors that are more sensitive than a dog's sense of smell.
Read more and see pictures of Thomas Thundat's fascinating sensors here: http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/...ticle_15.shtml


In answer to the question: "can it detect gold or silver?"
In it's current form, the sniffex sensors are chemically treated to absorb certain molecules such as nitrates from explosives. But the micro-sensors could be made to sense gold and silver ions or vapors if they existed in the air that it was sampling. I have never found any evidence of ions or vapors of gold or silver in the air at normal atmospheric conditions. Thus, I would not expect the sniffex to sense gold or silver even if the sensor was modified. In the case of the "fake sniffex", it has been proven to not find explosives, and I would expect it also fails to find gold or silver.