Why should dikes and weirs always be made out of steel and concrete? Use rubber-soaked polyamide instead and save a third of the costs, argues Floris van der Ziel.

It’s the week of the biggest awards in science: the Nobel Prizes. This year’s winners of the Nobel
Prize in Medicine and the Nobel Prize in Physics were announced last Monday and Tuesday. TU Delft scientists comment on the awards.

001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Courier New”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-ansi-language:NL;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Name: Thomas Andritsch Nationality: Austrian PhD supervisor: Professor Johan Smit (high voltage components & power systems, faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science) Subject: Evaluation of nanodi-electrics for

When you break a limb, sometimes metal plates or pins must be implanted to help heal the bone. This technique however has its disadvantages. The solution: new types of materials that are as strong as human bone, but which simply degrade and disappear when they’re no longer needed.

Delta and Delft Outlook often write about innovative ideas that offer great promises for the future. But what has happened to them a couple of years later. What for instance has happened to the interactive advertisement screen that Kerem Obadasi developed in 2006?

Sound waves can chill ice cream, while heat can generate intense whistling tones. Welcome to the bizarre world of thermoacoustics, a promising source of ideas for next generation heat engines.

The coldest place in the solar system is no longer Pluto, but rather a crater on the moon’s south pole, according to an article in this week’s issue of New Scientist. And that’s good news for space travel.