Faking out the fakers
Next time you fill up at the pump, there's a good chance you'll be injecting billions of nanoparticles into your tank. These marker molecules are in much of the gasoline at U.S. pumps, allowing gas companies to determine whether the fuel you're buying is the real stuff or some adulterated mix.
If you think that's weird, a similar organic tracing compound may one day be coursing through your alimentary canal as you sip a scotch on the rocks. After years of taking abuse from counterfeiters, companies and even nations are turning to advanced technologies to win back control of their brands and ward off accidents associated with fakes.
The European Union and the United States are lurching toward creating anti-counterfeiting standards, but companies aren't waiting. They're applying the latest advances in molecular science and nanotechnology: injecting their products with nanotracers, dyeing them with invisible DNA markers, and engraving them with microscopic laser etchings.
