Multitasking: a highway to self-deception

Asserting to ourselves that we work efficiently is something we strive for – it’s hard to beat the feeling of having been really productive after a long day at work. To accomplish this, it seems incredibly inefficient to just do one thing at a time while you’re working, doesn’t it. Why should you, when you …

Superconducting spintronics

New and enhanced effects in spintronics emerge when using superconducting materials. The right combination of materials that merge superconductivity and spintronics creates, for instance, a flow of spins that has zero resistance. This could eventually lead to new types of functionality in low-temperature technology. Whereas electronics is the foundation for modern technology, the field of …

How to choose a research area?

Being a scientific researcher gives you the freedom to pursue answers to questions that you, and hopefully many others, find interesting. But with freedom comes the necessity to choose: with so many topics to pick from, how do you select which research field to devote yourself to? Once this question has been posed, a number …

“When I grow up, I want to …”

If you ask a child “What do you want to do be when you grow up?”, I’m willing to place a fairly generous sum of money on that “Professor” will not be one of the most common answers you’ll get. After all, it is difficult to compete with cool things like astronauts, princesses, and firemen. …