The 2011 revolution did not bring about freedom for Syrians. The civil war in the country has already claimed hundreds of thousands of victims. Gradually, despair has set in. “But if you look closely, there are some rays of hope. We need to highlight those in order to not further dehumanize the people who are trapped in the conflict,” says Middle East expert Brigitte Herremans.
The tension between privacy law and criminal law is a ticking time bomb. “We are heading for an unmitigated disaster”, says Professor Gert Vermeulen.
Ghent University’s Motivation Barometer suggests that two out of ten Belgians are sceptical about the corona vaccines. Philosopher of science and researcher at Ghent University Massimiliano Simons and moral philosopher Brecht Decoene, two specialists in conspiracy thinking and anti-vaxxers, explain how to counter this doubt and opposition.
Ghent University alumnus Tim Leyman won De Nieuwe Lichting, a music competition run by national radio station Studio Brussel, with his band Ramkot. Remarkably, there were two other former students of Ghent University in the finals. Let’s meet these three musical alumni.
The first vaccines against the coronavirus will be administered en masse in the coming months. And several other vaccines are under development. Three of them will pass through the Center for Vaccinology (CEVAC) of Ghent University, internationally renowned in the field of vaccine studies.
It turns out that large forests are not the only woodland to contribute to combatting climate change. In fact, small woods are important too, and far more than we once believed. Small areas of woodland actually take in proportionately more carbon than their larger relations. This means it is really important to take care of such areas, and plant more of them.
Ghent University is becoming more international than ever. In fact, the university will be part of ENLIGHT, a brand-new collaboration project, together with eight other European universities. This should make it easier to take courses abroad, conduct research across the borders and team up in tackling social challenges.
Why do we almost always receive vaccines via injection? Wouldn’t a pill be much easier? It would of course, but creating an oral vaccine is anything but easy. Ground-breaking research by Professor Eric Cox and Professor Bert Devriendt (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine) may well change this.
Imagine a virus that increases its chances of spreading by staying undetectable for a few days after it infects us, while we humans try to defend ourselves with a tool that we developed over thousands of years of evolution: our power to think. “Evolution is about more than just fossils or Darwin’s finches. It’s happening every day, before our very eyes.”
Researchers and governments come from all over the world to ask advice to Sarah De Saeger and Marthe De Boevre. The two UGhent researchers are world authorities in their field, namely toxic substances in fungi that cause cancers and affect immune systems. “We want to share our knowledge with regions that need it.”
The corona crisis is having a major negative impact on the most vulnerable refugees, according to a study by the World Health Organization published last Friday, on the International Day of Migrants. It was researchers from Ghent University and the University of Copenhagen that developed this report. “We are very happy that the WHO chose to run with our study. In this way our work can have worldwide resonance.”
Our tap water travels hundreds of kilometers each day, even though we get more than enough water falling on the roof. According to bioengineer Korneel Rabaey, switching to a local or even circular water supply is quite feasible.
