Within days of revelations that al-Qaida mailed an explosives-packed printer from Yemen destined for Chicago synagogues, Tel Aviv University said on Tuesday that its researchers have developed a powerful electronic sensor able to detect many kinds of such dangerous chemicals.

The nanotechnology-based sensor is fast, highly portable and more sensitive and reliable for detecting explosives than sniffer dogs are, according to Prof. Fernando Patolsky of the Sackler School of Chemistry, who headed the research team.