Videos

Snoring can be very annoying for your bed partner, but it can also seriously disrupt your own sleep as a snorer. Because did you know that snoring is sometimes accompanied by periods in which you literally stop breathing - sometimes even for minutes at a time? That is the case with obstructive sleep apnea. Marijke Dieltjens wants to restore peace and quiet in the bedroom by helping people who suffer from this with a small, personalized mouth brace. She explains how this works in this video.

Did you know that the sea can penetrate our lands and water resources unnoticed? Today, we find that saltwater in our polders, up to several kilometers inland. This salt water can make agricultural land and water supplies unusable. To find out exactly how far inland and how deep the saltwater problem reaches, Wouter Deleersnyder and his colleagues use a helicopter, a giant metal detector, and their knowledge of physics & geology. How all of this works, is explained by Wouter in this video.

When you think of animals with horns, you probably think of cows, goats, and rhinos. But did you know that many species of snakes have horns too? While this has been under the eye of researchers for a long time, it's still unclear why some snakes have horns. What do you think they're for? Federico Banfi sheds some light on current hypotheses. He hopes to find answers in his Ph.D. research.  

In Belgium, we grow a lot of potatoes. Unfortunately, potato plants are very susceptible to diseases. To prevent the spread of diseases, farmers spray their entire potato field with pesticides. Ruben Van De Vijver (ILVO) wants to use drones and artificial intelligence to spray only sick plants. Find out more in the video.

"What if I told you that the way you spend your money, reveals aspects of your mental health, such as anxiety or depression. We can make this connection thanks to Artificial Intelligence." Yanou Ramon (UAntwerp - FWO) explains how to make AI rule(s) in this video, as to offer treatment to people who need it most. 

The production of renewable energy has increased significantly in recent years. But the sun doesn't always shine as brightly, nor does the wind always blow. Fortunately, we can exchange electricity between different countries. This way, Germany can benefit from the Spanish sun and Spain from the German wind. But international trade unfortunately isn't that straightforward... Michiel Kenis (VITO - KU Leuven - EnergyVille) explains why and what he is trying to do about it in this video.

Every three seconds, someone in the world is diagnosed with dementia. But what causes it? Dementia can be caused by diseases such as Alzheimer's & Parkinson's. The only way to find out the exact cause is by studying the brain tissue of a patient after his death 🧠  Yaël Hirschberg hopes to develop a method of identifying this earlier so that a patient can receive targeted care even before the first symptoms of dementia appear. Watch her explain how  

Did you ever hear of 'heat networks'? These are networks of underground pipelines carrying hot water from geothermal plants to houses & buildings. They offer an interesting and sustainable approach to heating. But the larger the network of houses to be heated becomes, the more complex it becomes to manually design an efficient heat network. That's where Yannick Wack's (VITO - KU Leuven - Energyville) research comes in...

Millions of people worldwide suffer from 'invisible' diseases such as chronic widespread pain and chronic fatigue syndrome, which makes patients feel ill for days or even weeks after a small effort, such as washing their hair. Jolien Hendrix (VUB - KU Leuven) tries to understand these diseases by looking at epigenetics. Epi what?! Well, you can see this as DNA paperclips as Jolien explains vividly in this video!

"The cemetery was the place where Jewish life was concentrated at the end. It was the place where people went to sunbathe, children had to play, ..." Literature scholar Annelies Augustyns (VUB - UAntwerp - FWO) studied German-Jewish diaries from WWII for her PhD. These offer a glimpse into the "everyday" life of Jews in the Third Reich.

Hard sciences, such as physics, understand very well how the material world works and have contributed to enormous technological progress. But the social sciences, such as economics or sociology, do not seem to understand as well how the social world - human society - works. Thus, we apparently do not know how to build a peaceful and prosperous society worldwide. Michael Bauwens (UAntwerpen) tries to find out which fundamental assumptions researchers should use to do social science.