At a conference in Florida the UK company Oxford Nanopore Technologies presented a USB-stick that can read DNA sequences. “This will bring genetic information into medical practice.”

The world’s largest telescope, Lofar (Low Frequency Array), is about ready to probe the universe. Astronomers from around the world can submit their observation proposals as of this month.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research has awarded two grants worth more than 700,000 euros to Delft research that should lead to better medical ultrasound scanners and chips for the observation of young galaxies.

> Flexibility is more economic than rigidity when dealing with the turbulent environment, but rigidity is required to reach a higher level > ‘Macrophytes in estuarine gradients’, PhD-thesis by Jasper Dijkstra (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences) ’Ik zat op mijn kamer (zes vierkante meter voor 650 euro) in hartje Tokyo toen de aardbeving begon.…

In the presence of some 90 scientists, businessmen and journalists, the TU Delft Climate Institute was officially opened on the 1st of March. The president of the new TU Delft Climate Institute, Professor Herman Russchenberg, was thrilled to announce the opening of an institute that combines all climate-related research at TU Delft into one unified activity.

Majorana’s
Professor Leo Kouwenhoven (Kavli Institute, Applied Sciences) caused quite a stir with his presentation at the American Physical Society’s meeting in Boston, last week.

Name: Hermes Jara Orué
Nationality: Peruvian
Supervisor: Dr Bert Vermeersen (Promoter: Professor Boudewijn Ambrosius)
Subject: Rotational variations of icy moons with subsurface water oceans
Thesis defense: In two years

“Below the ice sheet of icy-moons, is there life in the liquid oceans? If there is life on icy moons, does it share the same origin as life on Earth? Although far-reaching, these questions are the deep drivers of my research.

Modest as it may be, the Mössbauer lab at the Reactor Institute does what no other Dutch lab can: it shows chemical catalysts in action under industrial conditions.