Hybrid micro/nano architectures: the best of two worlds

Over the past decades, scientists have uncovered that by making systems so small that the dimensions approach those of single molecules or atoms, exciting new functionalities and possibilities emerge that larger systems cannot offer. The scale where this happens is the scale of the nanometer […]

Diamonds are an engineer’s best friend

Diamond is not just a natural mineral famous for its beauty and cost; it is also a highly useful crystalline form of carbon that can be grown in a synthetic fashion. The list of properties that make diamond an attractive engineering material seems endless: extreme […]

Optimising complex designs, one calculation at a time

Prof.dr. Fred van Keulen of the Structural Optimisation and Mechanics research section (Department of Precision and Microsystems Engineering, TU Delft) develops ways to enhance and automate the conventional design process using computational modelling and optimisation techniques. These techniques allow designers to confidently predict the performance […]

Wear it, share it, proof it

It’s been called the next big revolution in healthcare, projected to explode into a multibillion dollar market over the next few years: wearable health technologies, or wearables. Google recently pioneered contact lenses that measure the glucose levels in tears, to name an example. At the […]

3D printing in vivo

Imagine 3D-printing a silicon band aid onto an unborn baby with spina bifida (open ruggetje in Dutch) inside its mother’s womb to prevent life-long handicaps. Is that idea open-minded and out-of-the-box enough? It can be no surprise that the jury of the annual Open Mind […]

Graduates BSc Nanobiology

It’s the only one in the world: the BSc programme in Nanobiology of TU Delft and Erasmus MC, launched in 2012. Its first 16 students have now graduated, with most of them continuing directly into the MSc programme in Nanobiology. Renske Voerman is one of […]

Environmental Biotechnology

Producing energy by burning waste chemicals may be good for a sustainable future. But converting waste into useful chemicals is better.” – From the 2010 annual report, Biotechnology Department, TU Delft. Alongside the efforts by the other biotechnology groups to establish and utilize pure cultures […]

Analytical Biotechnology

“Life essentially can be characterized as a sequence of actions triggered by signals. Peptides are carriers of those signals.” – From the 2010 Annual report of Department of Biotechnology, TU Delft. When Peter Verhaert became the new leader of the Analytical Biotechnology (ABT) group in […]