Everything about Technology

Yoghurt, pharmaceuticals, specialty coatings: many products are manufactured in multi-stage, finely tuned steps known as batch processes. These are sensitive operations: poor timing can ruin an entire batch. A research team is developing new concepts to help manufacturers rethink these traditionally rigid workflows. The reason? Electricity from renewable sources comes with fluctuating availability and prices, demanding greater flexibility from industrial production.

The civil engineer Henning Knerr is refining technologies for wastewater treatment plants that can remove environmentally hazardous synthetic substances – such as painkillers or X-ray contrast agents – from sewage.

Will quantum effects soon make our lives faster and better – or are many of the promises still just science fiction?How can we even begin to imagine quantum phenomena, given that the behavior of the tiniest particles involved is so difficult to grasp? Physics professor Artur Widera explains the fundamental laws and significance of the quantum world.