Seventy per cent of the earth is covered with water, and yet we know only a fraction of what all that water can actually do for us. The blue economy continues to discover amazing resources and solutions that lie hidden underneath the surface of the sea.
From now on, Professor Dominique Van Der Straeten can call herself a fellow of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This international recognition honours researchers who are making an invaluable contribution to science and its application. In the case of professor Van Der Straeten, it recognises her research, which aims to reduce ‘hidden’ hunger and the consequences of climate change.
Worldwide we are experiencing a real platformania: video-streaming platforms are popping up everywhere. But which platform is your best choice these days? And is it time to get rid of that traditional TV subscription?
We are bombarded with news about energy measures. Even so, there is a yawning gap between the paths defined and what people actually do.
Nearly 30 years ago, Rwanda went through a particularly brutal genocide perpetrated against Tutsis. The perpetrators were mainly regular citizens: colleagues, neighbours, family members… Today, both perpetrators and victims live side-by-side peacefully. But in a post-genocide society, can intergroup biases be ever reduced between individuals?
“Knowledge is important. But we tend to get hung up in that part of the process sometimes,” says researcher Bas Baccarne (research group imec-MICT-Ghent University, in De Krook). He prefers it when thinking also leads to doing. Preferably together with a whole bunch of other stakeholders. And, if it’s up to him, in the stimulating environment of ‘Comon’.
Around one in every ten people suffers from fingers that turn completely white when exposed to cold weather. This condition is known as Raynaud’s phenomenon, and thankfully, it‘s (mostly) nothing to worry about.
Autumn is the season for mushrooms – they are everywhere, and certainly growing in abundance in forests. But did you know that the mushrooms you see are just a very small part of a vast, gigantic, mainly subterranean network? And that without this network, other plants simply wouldn’t be able to survive?
Virtually all human rights treaties are much older than the modern technologies that determine the rhythm of our day-to-day lives. But these rights are under threat, especially from large tech companies. Professors Ruben Verborgh and Eva Lievens advocate an entirely new mindset: “The first step must always be to think about what kind of society we want. Only then can we build the technology necessary to achieve it, not the other way around.”
Few people have heard of it: peritoneal cancer. However, the disease, especially as a metastasis of another cancer, affects many patients. Unfortunately, it is often too late once the diagnosis is made: existing treatments achieve very little. Groundbreaking research by Professor Wim Ceelen is now resulting in new and promising treatments. And all thanks to the inheritance of a former patient.
Kim Calders discovered his passion for scanning trees when doing his PhD in Hallerbos forest, near Brussels. As a bio-engineer, he has been travelling the world with his LiDAR scanner ever since. Along the way, he has ended up face to face with cassowaries and elephants, and collaborated with artists to make a forest sing. A story in nine pictures.
During the Second World War, the patrol ship John Mahn sank off the Belgian coast. Bio-engineers at Ghent University, together with the Flanders Marine Institute, studied its impact on life in the North Sea.
