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Bridges change shape, which is why they are usually built with expansion joints. At TU Wien, a technology has been developed that makes it possible to forego these joints, thus saving time and money. You can feel it straight away when you drive over a bridge quickly: the expansion joint that you rumble over at the start and end of the bridge.

Storing information in a quantum memory system is a difficult challenge, as the data is usually quickly lost. At TU Wien, ultra-long storage times have now been achieved using tiny diamonds. At some locations in the crystal lattice, a carbon atom (white) is missing, and at the neighbouring site there is a nitrogen atom (yellow).

Spectacular electron microscope images at TU Wien lead to important findings: Chemical reactions can produce spiral-like multi-frequency waves and thus provide local information about catalysts. They appear almost hypnotic, like a lava lamp. The waves made visible at TU Wien using a photoemission electron microscope cover the surface of rhodium foil with bizarre patterns which dance around on the surface.

Stresses and strains can drastically alter the properties of a material, and TU Wien has now developed a method to make these internal deformations visible. Two-dimensional materials such as graphene, which consist of only one or a few atomic layers, have been a very promising aspect of materials science over recent years.

Can we teach ethical behaviour to machines' Computer Scientists in Vienna are studying ancient Sanskrit texts and using the tools of mathematical logic to describe ethical rules. The Indian sacred texts of the Vedas have been studied for millennia. But now, for the first time in history, computer scientists in Vienna analyse them by applying the methods of mathematical logic.

TU Wien can now produce porous structures in monocrystalline silicon carbide. This opens up new possibilities for the realization of micro-and nanomachined sensors and electronic components, but also for integrated optical mirror elements to filter certain colours. Extremely fine porous structures with tiny holes - resembling a kind of sponge at nano level - can be generated in semiconductors.

At TU Wien, a major step has been taken towards linking electrical and magnetic material properties, which is crucial for possible applications in electronics. It's not exactly a new revelation that electricity and magnetism are closely linked. And yet, magnetic and electrical effects have been studied separately for some time now within the field of materials science.

A remarkable discovery was made at TU Wien recently, when particles known as 'Weyl fermions' were discovered in materials with strong interaction between electrons. Just like light particles, they have no mass but nonetheless they move extremely slowly. There was great excitement back in 2015, when it was first possible to measure these 'Weyl fermions' - outlandish, massless particles that had been predicted almost 90 years earlier by German mathematician, physician and philosopher, Hermann Weyl.

A wildlife crossing over the upcoming Koralm railway is being built, using a new construction technique developed by TU Wien. Traditional support structures are replaced by an air cushion. The shell construction methods which are usually used to build bridges and domes generally rely on expensive support structures.

The Computer Scientist Matteo Maffei (TU Wien) is awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for the project "Browsec: Foundations and Tools for Client-Side Web Security" . He is working on a plugin that will make browsers safe - and is logically impossible to fool. We are hardly aware of the dangers we face when we are browsing the web.

TU Wien is conducting research into high-precision 3D printing technology. Now, a new method is enabling researchers to look for suitable materials with greater precision than ever. How is it possible to build a model of St Stephen's Cathedral the size of a dust particle' Well, using TU Wien's modern 3D-printing technology, this is no longer a problem.

A new cloaking technology has been developed at TU Wien: a special kind of material is irradiated from above in such a way that another beam of light can pass completely uninhibited. The material is irradiated with a specially designed pattern, the wave from the left can pass through the object completely unperturbed.

A riddle, which has been bugging atomic physicists for more than 20 years, has been solved. The solution should help to understand the helpful effects of ionizing radiation in cancer therapy. A highly charged ion (center) passing through graphene can transfer energy to several carbon atoms simultaneously.

A new imaging technique, Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT), will soon be used to monitor important bodily functions. A collaborative project between TU Wien, the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, has enabled significant progress to be made with this technology.

Working 24 hours non-stop on real-life problems set by companies and proving the power of innovation at the Alpbach Technology Symposium.

Simon Stellmer has been awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant. He will now use ultracold mercury atoms to investigate fundamental symmetries in nature. Why is there matter in the universe at all? To date there has been no conclusive answer to this question. Our understanding of the Big Bang is based on the assumption that equal amounts of antimatter and matter were created.

Simon Stellmer has been awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant. He will now use ultracold mercury atoms to investigate fundamental symmetries in nature. Why is there matter in the universe at all? To date there has been no conclusive answer to this question. Our understanding of the Big Bang is based on the assumption that equal amounts of antimatter and matter were created.

The peculiar characteristics demonstrated by 'quantum critical points' at absolute zero remain one of the great unsolved mysteries of science. Normally, there needs to be a change in temperature in order to see a phase transition: a liquid gets cold, it freezes; a metal heats up, it loses its magnetic properties.

Wherever you look, you are almost guaranteed to find tiny plastic particles. However, a study conducted by TU Wien has revealed that, in many cases, what is thought to be plastic found in samples of seawater may actually be natural fibres from lab coats. Plastic is constantly finding its way into the ocean - it comes from ships, unsecured landfill sites and the sewage system.

Scientists at TU Wien and Würzburg University are changing our idea of the earth's magnetic field: iron alone cannot explain the concept of the geodynamo. The crucial ingredient is nickel. It only takes a simple compass to demonstrate that the earth has a magnetic field - but it is quite difficult to explain how exactly it is created.