Research and society

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.

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.

Programming is for younger generations what computer lessons were for today’s twenty and thirty year olds. It is as standard in their curriculum as languages and maths. Only, it’s a rather bumpy ride. Dodona, the project by Peter Dawyndt and Bart Mesuere, can help in smoothing the path.

The signs coming from our bedrooms are far from positive: between fifteen and twenty per cent of adults suffer from chronic sleeping problems. And Covid has only made things worse. The impact it has had on our bodies and minds cannot be underestimated. But the good news is: you can train your sleep.

Every day, professor Xavier Saelens and his team work on new and improved vaccines and medicines to counter flu and corona viruses. Recently, they’ve been doing their work in a new research facility. “Our primary goal: to help those suffering from diseases.”