SPACE scientists at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, in Harwell, have won £10,000 for their business plan to commercialise their bright idea for use in security scanners, telecoms and cancer detection.

They will use the Research Councils UK Business Plan prize to kickstart their marketing of components for ‘terahertz electronics’.

Astronomers are fascinated by terahertz waves, halfway between microwaves and the infra-red, because they can ‘see’ through space dust to distant stars. Emitted by everything, the waves penetrate dry, non-metallic materials such as clothing or sand, but are absorbed by water and metal.

Traditional electronic circuits such as transistors no longer function at the high frequencies of terahertz, and the RAL scientists are already selling their cutting-edge technology worldwide.

According to Dr Byron Alderman, the potential is enormous, from counter-terrorism security to telecoms and non-destructive testing, from examining cells for medical research to detecting cancerous tumours.

The same technology is being used by another Oxfordshire company, ThruVision, also spun out of the RAL space science team, in security scanners used in places like airports, border checkpoints, public buildings, sporting events and by the police.