Research and society

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.”

Physicists at Ghent University have succeeded in cooling several ten thousand atoms to just above absolute zero (about -273°C). In doing so, they created a so-called Bose–Einstein condensate: a state in which all atoms behave exactly the same, as was once predicted by physicists Einstein and Bose.

The last years’ drought has caused stress in trees. Some have stopped growing; others have shed their foliage. Sometimes entire forests have perished. The bioengineers at the Department of Environment (Faculty of Bioscience Engineering) are crossing national borders to try to find out the causes of the problems effecting trees globally and working on a type of forest that can cope with climate change.

Alumna Danaë Delbeke is developing a solution that can improve the lives of millions of people with diabetes. The entrepreneur raised 38 million euro last year with the UGent spin-off Indigo Diabetes. The goal: to put a workable product on the market by 2024.

How long should a holiday last in order to completely destress and disconnect from your work? How bad is it for your mental health if you sit on the beach reading your work mails rather than a thriller? Professor Els Clays teaches in the department of Public Health and Primary Care and is investigating the impact of work-related stress on human health.

Will we soon be wearing smart textiles that can adapt to the heat? Professor Lieva Van Langenhove of the Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Process Engineering explains how that could work.

Are we likely to face a greater number of intense storms in the summer, due to climate change? Yet why does it rain harder when the temperature rises? That seems counter-intuitive, but not at all, says Steven Caluwaerts, climatologist at Ghent University and the KMI (Royal Meteorological Institute).

“Summer lovin', had me a blast. Summer lovin', happened so fast.” Danny and Sandy felt it already in the classic film Grease: during the summer there is love in the air. But is there any truth in it? Do we fall in love more quickly in the summer?