Christopher White

The Transportation Security Administration plans to test a new anti-terrorist measure at airports: encrypted bar codes on boarding passes.

Tests could begin at a few airports this year. A Jan. 27 notice said the TSA may buy 2,300 boarding-pass scanners -- equal to one for each airport checkpoint in the U.S.

Depending on how the test goes, the agency will decide whether to require every airline to issue the new passes, aimed at preventing terrorists from forging their own boarding papers.

Last year, the government posed a question for scientists: Could a computer program show how bombs might rip through jets?

Today, that question is answered. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque have created the first computer model that simulates a bomb blowing up a passenger plane. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is hoping that it will be an improvement from the traditional method of testing airplanes by blowing up actual bombs in retired jets.