london coming soon a star trekstyle medical scanner say scientists and as a major step towards achieving its goal an international team has already developed a new way of creating a type of radiation known as terahertz thz or trays the nature photonics journal reported these rays if used in security detectors could help in the development of futuristic handheld medical scanners say the scientists in their research the scientists from the agency for science technology and research in singapore and imperial college london in the uk have made trays into a stronger and directional beam than was previously thought possible and have efficiently produced trays at roomtemperature conditions this breakthrough would allow future tray systems to be smaller more portable easier to operate and much cheaper say the scientists according to them the tray scanner and detector could provide part of the functionality of a star treklike medical tricorder a portable sensing computing and communications device since the waves are capable of detecting biological phenomena such as raised blood flow around tumorous growths future scanners could also perform fast wireless data communication to transfer a high volume of information on the measurements it makes say the scientists trays are waves in far infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum that have a wavelength hundreds of times longer than light they are in use in airport security scanners