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In our Sunday newsletter, we, as editors, look back on the past seven days. We do this on the initiative of our cartoonist Albert Jan Rasker. He chooses a subject, makes a drawing, and we take it from there.

To discover the secret behind Brainport’s success, a visit to Amsterdam may help. Forget the Zuidas, stay away from the Arena, and go straight to the Van Gogh Museum. Because Vincent already had it figured out at the time, director Lianne van den Boogaard of WTC Brainport explained to our colleague Aafke Eppinga. “On ‘The Potato Eaters’, you see a large family sitting at a table around a pan of potatoes. That actually says it all. Traditionally, Brabanders are Catholic. A family with ten, eleven, or twelve children was quite normal at the beginning of the last century. Food, clothing, your sleeping place: we are used to sharing and taking each other into account.”

Working together: if one aspect has been decisive in the rise of this once-poor region, this is it. And the great thing is: it is precisely in times of absolute misery that this characteristic comes out extra sharply. Just like 40 years ago, when the local economy wasn’t doing so well either. The region needed resilience to come out on top, Bert-Jan Woertman also notes. “We had to solve it together. That has been rewarded with success. So that’s how we found out, earlier than other regions in the Netherlands, that working together pays off.”

Read our three-person interview on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Brabantse Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij (BOM), World Trade Center Eindhoven Brainport (WTC/e), and Mikrocentrum’s membership platform here:

40 years of BOM, WTC/e, and Mikrocentrum. ‘We found out earlier than the rest of the Netherlands that cooperation pays off’

The boss of electronics just died

Everyone today who uses a smartphone, is on the Internet, drives a car, or uses some household appliance owes an eternal debt of gratitude to Gordon Moore, who died yesterday. The American was the driving force behind the digital revolution in the second half of the last century. Our look back at his enormous importance to the world today naturally includes much space for how ASML has built on it.

ASML’s advanced machines have been essential to the miniaturization of semiconductors, allowing manufacturers to “prove” Moore’s Law.

There’s more…

In addition – as always – we had our sights firmly set on all those people and organizations working on the enormous challenges of our time. Here is our “sneak preview of the future” from this week:

Triangle or double L? The Einstein Telescope can be divided into two parts

The AI revolution in education: different exam formats and new ethical standards?

ZIE 2023 focuses on sharing knowledge to address major challenges of high-tech

Are biofuels and e-fuels clean alternatives to gasoline?

Tilburg wants to start catching up as a knowledge city: ‘The only Zuidas, that’s us’

Europe wants to free itself from unwanted dependencies with Critical Raw Materials Act

And finally, here’s what our AI editor did this week: follow Laio.

Have a great, innovative week!