For decades, airports around the nation have employed sensitive canine noses to detect concealed explosives. While this four-legged fleet has been effective and efficient, researchers have yet to build a mechanical method that can mimic their abilities. Sasha Wrobel and Ta-Hsuan Ong are leading a team of researchers from MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Biological and Chemical Technologies Group to try to find a way. The team’s research builds on the laboratory’s ongoing work to create and use a mass spectrometer to help train bomb-sniffing dogs, a project that is supported by…