Fingerprint device may help find terrorists

SCIENTISTS are developing technology that recovers fingerprints from metal surfaces such as bomb fragments and gun cartridges, which could help track down terrorists.

Metal surfaces can yield crucial fingerprinting evidence in cases involving gun crime and terrorism, but there can be problems retrieving evidence.

Fingerprints on metal surfaces need to be made visible with powders and chemicals that do not work well on “sweat” prints, which can also partially disappear in high temperatures such as a bomb blast or a gun firing.