With all the understandable emphasis being placed on full body scanners and other detection technologies in the week since the failed Flight 253 bombing attempt, it's easy to forget that the ultimate success or failure of airport remains the "human factor", specifically the human screeners tasked with interpreting machine image scans.

A new report published last week in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication (no link available yet), examines the source of human error in screening for weapons and suggest some simple methods to help airport security personnel looking for weapons.