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[Our job as scientists in the world]
[[Bill McGann - Chief Technology Officer - Security]]
[is to take credible science and transition it into practical technology.]
[[male speaker] I was always interested in science and technology.]
[I don't like to admit it, but my mother thought I was kind of a geek when I was younger,]
[[Kevin Perry - Senior Design Engineer - Trace Portals]]
[playing with the Tinker Toys and taking things apart.]
[EntryScan is a non-contact detection device.]
[Everybody wants to know, "Oh, the puffer machine."]
["Oh, yeah. What the heck does that thing do?"]
[The basic concept for this system is for screening people]
[as they come through a controlled checkpoint.]
[If you can imagine going into a phone booth without closing the door behind you,]
[[Tim Kirk - Product Manager - Homeland Protection]]
[and hearing a voice boom from overhead say, "Air puffer is on."]
[[voice of machine] Air puffer is on. Wait for green light.]
[The whole purpose of the puffing of air is not to scare you;]
[it's to do nothing more than shake your clothing.]
[In that process what happens is particulate materials--invisible, tiny amounts of particles--]
[will be liberated from the rattling of your clothes into this airflow. ]
[[Mike Patterson - Technology Manager - Trace Detection] The particles are then]
[carried up by the human convention plume, which your body gives off a natural heat.]
[About 50 liters per second of air comes off the top of your body.]
[And then a quiet period of another four or five seconds,]
[in which case an analysis on that sample is collected and done.]
[Really what it's doing is just collecting particles, ionizing them,]
[then measuring their time of flight.]
[Trace detection is a very, very sensitive detection and identification]
[of substances in the world that are not detectable by any other means.]
[It's all cutting edge technology.]
[I couldn't imagine working on anything else.]
[A lot of times engineers develop pieces of a product,]
[but here we develop a product from start to finish.]
[The team is excellent. We have lots of sharp folks here.]
[They are dynamic. They really enjoy what they do.]
[There are many, many wide-ranging applications ]
[where trace detection technology just like this can be used.]
[Even all the way over to healthcare]
[people use canines--dogs--for sniffing out certain diseases among humans.]
[This technology would be outstanding for that application.]
[That is an area which I have always felt has great promise in the future.]
[It really does feel empowering to know that what you are doing is making the world safer.]
[Looking back on your career--as a person who's been a career scientist--]
[say the things that you've done that have been good for you, for your business,]
