Partnertech, a new company in Gwinnett County, is manufacturing a new device that literally sniffs out potential bomb threats.

Called an IMS, the machine can be mounted almost anywhere or carried by hand to test the air for explosive or other dangerous chemicals.

It is very likely that within a few years machines like the IMS will be found not just at airports and on mass transit, but in commercial buildings. It's like having a bomb-sniffing dog that doesn't need to be fed.

No one can deny that security at airports is top-notch and state of the art with enough machines to fill a Wal-Mart. The trick is to shrink it all down into a device smaller than a dictionary.

The Isonics Homeland Security and Defense Corporation has done just that with the IMS.

"Chemical warfare agents like sarin, taboon, VX gas, or toxic industrial chemicals like fosgin or cyanide, chlorine, ammonium nitrate - we can identify those very, very quickly," said Isonics spokesman John Dowd.

In fact, the ion mobility spectrometry device needs just a few seconds to literally sniff out the danger in the air, potentially preventing terrorist bombings like those that shut down the British transit system a year ago.

"By measuring the time it takes for certain molecules to drift that same distance slower than others, we can determine not only the size of those the weight of those molecules but also what kind of an agent they represent," said Dowd.

The IMS can be mounted almost anywhere. It can also be portable, so emergency personnel can carry it with them, or simply attach it to bomb-detection robots.

"In a handheld application, we can take this AME technology and use it to screen packages and people at the airport for chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals and home-made explosives," Dowd said.

It is clearly a powerful new weapon in homeland security.