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A team of researchers from the UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium has managed to measure changes in the energy levels of a free radical molecule in a magnetic field. They were able to measure directly the thermoelectric currents inside the molecule, using a new method called thermocurrent spectroscopy. This method, published in Nano Letters, is an important tool for both chemical synthesis and single-molecule electronics.

Transistors used in computer chips have now reached the tiny scale of mere nanometres, yet chips manufacturers still lack the optical power to study this new generation of chips. Researchers from TU Delft have built a lensless microscope to make an image at the scale of 200 nanometres. With further refining of this technique the researchers expect to bring images of nanoscale transistors within their grasp in the next two years.

A team of researchers from TU Delft managed to design one of the world’s most precise microchip sensors; the device can function at room temperature – a ‘holy grail’ for quantum technologies and sensing.

CO2 can be electrochemically converted into valuable chemicals and fuels. Both capturing and converting CO2 do, however, require a lot of energy. An optimal combination of both processes can save a lot of energy and reduce the loss of materials. The TU Delft research group of David Vermaas recently published a paper in Nature Catalyses, summarising the various ideas on how to achieve this.

Lieven Vandersypen, Professor in Quantum Nanoscience and scientific director of Qu-Tech, has been awarded a Spinoza Prize for his pioneering work on quantum computation, which holds great promise for global problems in health, climate and energy. With his prize Vandersypen also intends to encourage girls to go into the field of technical sciences, as well as help people tell the difference between facts and fabrications. “The first time I heard about quantum computers I thought: how are these things possible?"

Using nanopore DNA sequencing technology, researchers from TU Delft and the University of Illinois have managed to scan a single protein: by slowly moving a linearized protein through a tiny nanopore, one amino acid at the time, the researchers were able to read off electric currents that relate to the information content of the protein. The researchers published their proof-of-concept in Science today. The new single-molecule peptide reader marks a breakthrough in protein identification, and opens the way towards single-molecule protein sequencing and cataloguing the proteins inside a single cell.

We warmly congratulate professor Marileen Dogterom on her appointment as the president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the forum, conscience, and voice of the arts and sciences in the Netherlands, effective June 1, 2022.

Leather is a strong product but has been getting bad press lately due to the fact that it is made of animal skins and the production process is a burden on the environment. The TU Delft student team WaterSkins has come up with a very sustainable alternative: artificial leather made during the treatment of wastewater.

MILabs, a TU Delft spin-off that develops ground breaking imaging devices, is acquired by Rigaku Corporation. Founded in 2006, MILabs provides pre-clinical imaging systems and equipment with higher efficiency and accuracy than conventional alternatives. MILabs has developed a unique system that enables high performance nuclear medicine imaging. The innovative technique contributes to the quest for new therapies and new insights into disease biology in research labs around the world.