Videos

How do you make a dairy cow emit less nitrogen without her producing less milk? To this end, Tine Van Den Bossche (ILVO - UGent) is doing tests with different feed additives that help the cow make milk proteins, among other things. Her goal: to provide milk that is not only good for all of us, but also better for the environment!

Potatoes are highly susceptible to diseases and pests. To better protect these crops, computer scientist Jana Wieme is deploying drones and artificial intelligence. With that extra eye, potato farmers can monitor each individual plant and thus intervene quickly when needed. In this video, she explains how it works.

When removing a kidney tumor, a surgeon has just 20 minutes to do the job. During the operation, the surgeon has to cut off the blood supply to the kidney to avoid a true blood bath. But if the kidney is without blood for too long, too much of it will die off, causing the kidney to malfunction. Using mathematical models, Saar Vermijs aims to help surgeons in their race against the clock...

Today, we can treat cancer better than ever. Yet some cancer types remain very difficult to fight. Such is the case of glioblastoma, a highly aggressive brain cancer in which only 7 in 100 patients are still alive five years after diagnosis. Hoping to help glioblastoma get small, Joke Deschildre doctored a sophisticated strategy to attack cancer cells.

Can you think of what products you would like to buy in 10 years' time? Predicting the future is quite difficult, isn't it? And yet that is what we expect from people who invent and develop new products. Lore Brosens wants to help product designers, both students and existing design engineers. How? By training them to think critically and come up with creative solutions.

Everywhere in Flanders you can find beautiful historical buildings, such as belfries and castles. They have been there for hundreds of years, but keeping all this historical heritage healthy is no easy task. Think of moisture problems and mold growth. And what about climate change? Is our heritage protected against it? Bruno Vanderschelden finds out.

Katleen Wils is a geologist researching earthquakes, yet you'll mostly see her on a boat bobbing in lakes. "What on earth do lakes have to do with earthquakes?", we hear you thinking. "Thanks to lakes, we can look back in time, up to thousands of years ago," Katleen explains. And at the bottom of lakes, this is how she finds traces of ancient earthquakes. What we can learn from this for the future, she tells you in this video.

Dogs and humans have a lot in common, at least when it comes to cancer. That means that successful new treatments tested in dogs could be applied to humans. That's why Nayra Valle uses dogs with spontaneous cancer to develop and test a new technique for image-guided surgery. This could help surgeons better remove cancer tumors when operating on patients.

Do you drink juice in the morning or enjoy a glass of wine to relax after a busy day? Did you know that in order to preserve its flavor and prevent bacterial growth, your favorite beverage has to go through several stages of processing? One is the filtration process, a very expensive production stage. To ensure you can enjoy your favorite drink at a low(er) price, Rishav Phukan is developing next-generation membranes, which will help the industry cut costs and produce in a more eco-friendly way.

What if highways became walking and cycling corridors with live music, food trucks, street artists, and beautiful green spaces? What if your train car was transformed into a gym or a comfortable working space to use during your commute? Hannah Hook (UGent) wants to re-evaluate travel, focusing on human well-being.

Every year, the Belgian police have the equivalent of some 3,600 officers absent due to sick leave. "That's as if there wasn't an officer in Antwerp and Ghent for a year," explains criminologist Celien De Stercke (UGent). Why is it that absence rates in the police have been higher than in other sectors for years? By looking at the sick absences from 2019, De Stercke got a better understanding of which groups within the police are especially absent for long periods and what factors play a role.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. One out of 4 people dies from it. To improve treatment options for patients suffering from heart disease, mechanical engineer Mathias Peirlinck develops digital twins of patient hearts. Digital what? Watch Mathias (and his digital twin) explain it in this video.