Research and society

In the simplest terms, health is the sum total of the effect of genes, behaviour, and surroundings. But of course we can’t just change our genes. So, if we want to avoid getting ill, it’s more productive to consider our behaviour and our surroundings as they are the things we can influence. Ghent University, KU Leuven, the University of Antwerp and Hasselt University are pooling their expertise in the first large scale ‘exposome’ research project in Flanders.

How to use waste water, CO2 and plastics as a source of energy or a raw material? This is one of the key questions that keeps professor Korneel Rabaey occupied on a daily basis. A question to which he is now seeing an answer emerge, thanks to the new research platform CAPTURE, which he helped to conceive. The opening of a physical research centre will accelerate progress in this area considerably, which has been his goal for years.

It is no longer profitable, yet the money keeps flowing into Belgian savings accounts. “In human terms it is understandable, but it’s a drama for our economy”, explains professor Gert Peersman. Are there alternatives? And what about saving for our old age?

A test that ‘weighs’ whether and how much corona you have, but can also recognize flu and perhaps even cancer. That’s what molecular biologist Maarten Dhaenens and PhD student Bart Van Puyvelde have been working on for the past year. “This way of testing offers so many possibilities for the future.”

As soon as the pandemic is over, the climate crisis will come back into focus. “We have to aim for zero CO2 emissions. Not ‘a bit less’, but zero”, says philosopher of science Maarten Boudry. And that requires a global debate, moving away from the oversimplified visions that currently dominate the debate.

Human rights should not only be seen as a legal issue. “They play a role in all disciplines”, says professor of human rights Eva Brems. With a multidisciplinary outlook on the theme, Ghent University is playing a pioneering role. And that is necessary, “because human rights are more than ever under pressure, also in Europe.”

What if we had one jab instead of two? Or what if we first vaccinated the active population, and only then those less mobile? Such questions cross everyone’s mind from time to time. At Ghent University, biostatisticians actually make models to see what these questions mean.

Will eel in green sauce soon be off the menu? It could well be, as the slippery fish is threatened with extinction. Reason enough for Ghent University researcher Pieterjan Verhelst to intervene. He’s looking for ways to save the eel: “The eel is part of our Flemish culture. We must not let that be lost.”

Since the beginning of the first lockdown, Ghent University has been gauging how and why we comply with the rules. Meanwhile, the motivation barometer has become a unique behavioral study with unprecedented social relevance. “We provide scientifically substantiated policy advice to support our motivation drivers,” says Professor Maarten Vansteenkiste, the driving force behind the study.

It is fair to say that Sir Tim Berners-Lee changed the world when he invented the World Wide Web 32 years ago. And his work is far from finished, because he wants a mid-course correction on the web. An absolute necessity, as he himself says, on which he is working together with Ruben Verborgh from Ghent University, among others.

For many years, bumblebee doctor Dave Goulson has been working to save the bumblebee from extinction. Pioneering work, which earned him an honorary doctorate from Ghent University and the praise of his promoter, Professor Guy Smagghe: “The interest in bees and bumblebees has grown internationally and that is partly thanks to him”.

More frequent environmental disasters due to global warming, plant and animal species that disappear, ecosystems that are disrupted. These are environmental problems, but increasingly they threaten human rights, such as the right to health or even the right to life. It raises the question: is the right to a healthy environment actually a human right?