Even if it is not, the material that has been found could have been used to make a "radiological" weapon, by blowing it up and scattering it around a city using conventional explosives.

For many years researchers have been trying to develop a synthetic material with the same light-scattering properties as an opal, by etching patterns into various materials. That approach has failed.

Produced during mutual action of light and material, Raman spectroscopy is a kind of testing method which use inelastic scattering light.