Videos

Away with bare boxwood bushes! The infamous boxwood moth went on a rampage in Flanders in recent years 🐛🌳 But don't panic! Meet Japanese holly, a robust alternative that is immune to these voracious caterpillars. The catch? The soil in many Flemish gardens is not acidic enough for this shrub to grow well. Bioengineer Esther Geukens will therefore tinker with the plants and the soil so that Japanese holly can thrive here.

Did you know that every two minutes, enough ice melts on Earth to fill around 400 Olympic swimming pools with its meltwater? "The urgency is real – glaciers worldwide are disappearing at an alarming rate. In various corners of the globe, millions rely on these majestic glaciers for their drinking water and agricultural needs." Dive into the eye-opening short trip with glaciologist Lander Van Tricht as he takes you on a glacier expedition in Kyrgyzstan.

Birgit De Bock (Aquafin) shows you what a rainwater sample looks like after it washed down a heavy traffic road. Would you like to swim in this? Neither do the fish! That's why our rainwater has to be filtered before it is released into the river. Birgit explains how they tackle this at Aquafin.

Biologist Nikol Kmentová is fascinated by ... parasites. Why? Because they are the most successful life form on earth. To find out why they are the true champions of life on Earth, Nikol tries to unravel the secrets of these fascinating creatures in the depths of Lake Tanganyika in Africa. In this video, she reveals the strategies that allow parasites to thrive in one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet!

In 2021, a major water bomb fell in Wallonia, and in recent summers we have constantly struggled with heat waves and periods of drought. But did you know that our gardens can help protect us from the effects of climate change? Valerie Dewaelheyns sheds some light on how to turn your garden into a climate garden, which will help protect you from the effects of climate change.

We are facing a little green problem: the southern green stink bug, an insect from Ethiopia, is on the rise in our country. And that's bad news for our vegetable growers. Fortunately, Margot Geerinck is working on a solution. The protagonists: ichneumon wasps & fungi!

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!

Milk is a source of many delicacies, such as cheese and ice cream. Unfortunately, milk also has a smell to it... Cows produce ammonia and methane through their breath and manure. These harmful gases are mainly released when cows are in their stables. In his Ph.D., Kobe Coorevits is looking for a way to accurately and affordably monitor the emission of these gases in dairy barns.

Less than 10%... That's how much of all the plastic is recycled today. The rest is incinerated or ends up in landfills or -worse- in our oceans... The problem is that with current recycling methods, the quality of the plastic decreases with each recycling cycle. So is there no method to recycle plastic repeatedly without losing quality? There is: chemical recycling, aka the 'reincarnation' of plastic. Annelore Aerts (VITO) explains how that works.

What if we could give mining waste a second life? Mining produces a lot of waste, so-called mine tailings. These tailings still contain some leftover valuable metals, Nor Kamariah is researching new approaches to extract these remaining metals from the mining waste, while cleaning these tailings all at once. These clean tailings can then be recycled as construction materials. 

Daniely Reis Santos is a plant lover. She especially loves plants' ability to engage in photosynthesis: capturing CO2 from the air and converting it into sugar using the sun's energy. In her doctorate, she is determined to do the same: use solar energy to convert CO2 into useful products through a process called photo electrocatalysis. But in order to do so, there are some challenges she must tackle.

When you think of mistletoe, you probably think of the Christmas kissing tradition and ancient druids, while the word parasite may not come to mind. Yet mistletoe is a parasitic plant that grows on the branches of numerous tree species, from which it draws water and nutrients. This can lead to serious damage to this host tree. Still, we should not hastily remove mistletoe from these trees, says Luiza Teixeira-Costa. Watch her explain the positive side of this 'enemy with benefits'.