While most of us think of airport security as fairly accurate, studies have shown that screeners fail to detect weapons, drugs, and explosives up to 80 per cent of the time. But a new X-ray method could make it much easier for screeners to detect these illegal and dangerous items. Researchers from University College London used AI to develop the approach, which they say can detect items with 100 per cent accuracy. Tristram Riley-Smith, co-author of the study, said: 'This research has demonstrated the potential to transform the detection of covert threats around the world, as well as such varied contraband as narcotics and illicit wildlife commodities.' The X-ray technique relies on the fact that microscopic changes or irregularities in objects cause X-ray beams to bend as they pass through them – something the researchers discovered in previous research.