黑料福利网

Monday

• Can you stir your coffee with room-temperature plasma?

  We are taught in high school that matter can exist in solid, liquid, or gaseous form. But there鈥檚 a fourth state that鈥檚 much less well known: plasma. Calum Ryan researched how this unique state of matter can exist even at room temperature, and what it can be used for鈥攊ncluding new medical applications, more sustainable agriculture, and healthier crops. And you can even use it to stir your coffee. But if that improves the taste remains to be seen.

• Reframe the membrane

  We鈥檙e all familiar with coffee filters鈥攖hey鈥檙e incredibly handy for separating the coffee grounds from the delicious brew. In chemistry, a filter that performs this task is called a membrane. Jadwiga Poniatowska investigated how membranes used in the chemical industry can be made more sustainable鈥攂y designing them more intelligently or using different materials, for example.

Tuesday

• Can an artificial heart valve or blood vessel naturally become part of your body?

  When parts of our body wear out鈥攕uch as blood vessels due to diabetes or kidney dialysis, for example鈥攖here are already replacements that doctors can implant in your body. However, there鈥檚 a chance that your body will reject those foreign substances and materials. What if those foreign materials slowly dissolved and your body built the replacement itself instead? Anthal Smits is researching how to use the body鈥檚 natural inflammatory response to help the body heal itself.

• Monitoring your health through sweat!

  If you want to know how your body is doing, you often have to get a blood test. And for people with, say, diabetes or a kidney condition, that happens daily or even more often to monitor their health. That鈥檚 why, during her research, Emma Moonen explored the possibilities of using sweat to measure the same health information. The challenges are significant (you generally don鈥檛 sweat liters of fluid), but so are the benefits. Through her own company, DXcrete, she is now focused on further developing this technology for kidney patients.

Wednesday

• A smart compass helps people with dementia find their way home

  How can smarter design help people with (early-stage) dementia? For example, by designing and marketing a compass that always points the way home. Researchers and entrepreneurs Rens Branckaert and Maarten Houben are exploring this and other questions related to designing for people with dementia.

• How do you design a neighborhood where older people also feel at home?

  People are living longer. Research shows that the neighborhoods around their home become increasingly important to people in that phase of their lives, whether they reside in their own homes or in care facilities. Anne Grave and Masi Mohammadi are working with municipalities, healthcare institutions, housing corporations, and the elderly themselves to explore how they can design those surroundings so that older adults also feel comfortable there. In doing so, they are building a body of insights that their colleagues can benefit from.

Thursday

• The challenge of green hydrogen as a resource for industry

  One of the challenges of combating climate change is not only replacing fossil fuels as an energy source but also as a resource for industries. Green hydrogen can help decarbonize industry, but its use may require a reorganization of value chains. Clara Caiafa researches the socioeconomic and justice implications of potential changes in global value chains. Her research contains valuable insights for national and international policymakers.

• Are local energy communities the answer to grid congestion?

  As a result of the energy transition, more and more people are switching to electricity鈥攚ith electric cars, heat pumps, and solar panels鈥攚hich, combined with the transition in the business sector, can cause congestion on the power grid. As a result, more and more local groups of people鈥攊n neighborhoods, villages, or streets鈥攁re generating their own energy collectively and using it within their own communities. The research led by Christina Papadimitriou focuses on supporting these initiatives with a toolkit for the smart generation and use of energy.

Friday

• Foton (hearts) electron

  Photonic computer chips use light instead of electricity. They鈥檙e faster and more energy-efficient, so does that mean the good old electronic chip will soon be headed for the trash? Not exactly. While light does transport information from A to B at lightning speed, electrons are still incredibly good at processing information. They complement each other. In this interview, chip expert Martijn Heck explains how the interplay between light and electronics will soon give us the best of both worlds.

• Post-quantum cryptography: staying one step ahead of a threat that doesn't exist yet

  Once quantum computers become commonplace, they could render our current digital security measures useless overnight. In this interview, Kathrin H枚velmanns discusses her groundbreaking research into post-quantum cryptography: the technology designed to keep our data secure even in the quantum age.