Videos

5 million Flemings do not live in a city centre, but in villages or city outskirts. This fragmentation creates a major challenge: how do you connect all these houses to the sewerage network and how do you ensure smooth and sustainable mobility? Does everyone have to move to the city? No, as architect and urban designer Sophie Leemans (KU Leuven) explains in this video.

In Belgium, 10,000 cyclists are injured in traffic accidents every year. While helmets help reduce skill fractures, they often don't protect cyclists from brain injuries. Andrea Menichetti (KU Leuven) studies how much our brain can deform before getting injured in order to help manufacturers produce safer helmets.

Our poo and pee are too precious to waste, says Angelou Papangelou. The phosphorus in our excrement and in animal manure can serve as the food of our food and shouldn't go to waste. That's why Anastasia Papangelou is mapping the nutrient stocks and flows in the country, so that we can put our poo and pee to good use!

The land of farmers in coastal Bangladesh remains flooded for almost half of the year. To tackle this, Bangladeshi farmers use 'floating farms'. Jinat Hossain tells you more about this innovative adaptation mechanism. 

Is it possible to make our cars lighter, and therefore more environmentally friendly, without compromising our safety? Luca Martulli (KU Leuven) turns to lightweight carbon fibre composites to do so.

The coronavirus pandemic has drastically reduced air traffic. But did you know that normally some 3,000 planes fly over Belgium every day? Katharina Schopf (KU Leuven) investigates the role of air traffic controllers and their leaders in ensuring that there are no airborne collisions

Do you also love bread? Belgians eat an average of 33 kg of bread a year, about 1,000 slices. But that's mostly white bread, which doesn't contain much fibre. To make us eat more of that healthy fibre, Sara Petit-Jean (KU Leuven) is working on new, high-fibre white bread.

Meat is an important source of protein. But did you know that these proteins can also be obtained from microbes and bacteria? Janne Spanooghe wants to introduce a new source of protein on our plate: purple bacteria.