Videos

Sarra
Zaghbouni
UHasselt

How tiny diamonds can help us study brain injury

Meet Sarra Zaghbouni. She unleashes nano-sized diamonds to decode the brain's secrets! 💎🧠 Teaming up with physicists, she's creating these tiny carbon heroes that sense and control temperature, allowing her to study how this affects the growth of neurons 🌡️ This research could help accelerate healing after brain injuries!
Naomi
Veeningen
UHasselt

Spinal cord injury and ageing of your immune system

A stupid accident, cancer, or a hernia - it can all cause a spinal cord injury in which certain parts of your body are then paralysed. But there is also a hidden effect - an effect in the blood, explains Naomi Veeningen (UHasselt) 🩸
Nikol
Kmentová
UHasselt

Parasites, the most successful life form on earth

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!
Ilse
Goyens
FWO
KU Leuven
VIB

Bacteria in the fight against 'crazy root disease'

Have you ever heard of the mysterious "crazy root disease"? Sounds like something you'd rather not have in your garden or greenhouse, right? 🌱 Find out more about this bizarre plant disease and how the VIB and the KU Leuven are determined to get rid of it! 💡✨
Sophie
Heymans
FWO
KU Leuven

Helping clinicians treating moving tumors with radiation

Thanks to advanced proton therapy, doctors can precisely start irradiating brain tumours. Unfortunately, they do not yet dare to use this technique on tumours in the belly. Why? Because it's a bit like playing darts with a blindfold, while you have to hit a moving target, as Sophie Heymans explains in this video. She tells you about the technique she is working on to help doctors face this challenge.
Hannah
Davidoff
imec
KU Leuven

Dementia: detecting agitation using sensors

What if we could predict whether a person with dementia is about to become agitated? That would help caregivers intervene in time and direct their attention to this person, so as to prevent agitation onset. That's what Hannah Davidoff (KU Leuven - Imec) hopes to achieve. Using wearables and other sensors, she builds algorithms to detect agitation.
Valerie
Dewaelheyns
KU Leuven

How do we activate the climate power of our gardens?

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.
Sara
Feijoo Moreira
KU Leuven

Treating wastewater: how to remove microcontaminants?

Have you ever seen wastewater from a factory? This usually looks very clean, thanks to wastewater treatment. Yet it may still contain many traces of drugs, pesticides, or cleaning agents. These so-called microcontaminants end up in rivers and cause damage to the environment. In the lab, Sara Feijoo Moreira and her colleagues developed a method that uses electrochemistry to remove these micropollutants from wastewater.
Emilie
Bartsoen
KU Leuven

Laughing rats help better understand autism spectrum disorder

Rats are our best friends. Or at least Emilie Bartsoen's. She only has to listen to her rats to know how they feel. By observing the social behaviour of rats, she also wants to help people with autism. How? She explains that to you in this video!
Elisabeth
Heremans
FWO
KU Leuven

The AI that will help you sleep

Do you ever wake up feeling like you have been run over by a truck? You are not alone. As many as 1 in 5 adults suffer from a sleep disorder, ranging from sleep apnoea to insomnia. With a compact, wearable device and AI, Elisabeth Heremans wants to analyse sleep problems in patients from the comfort of their own bed, instead of having them spend the night in a sleep clinic attached to a bunch of wires.
Margot
Geerinck
KU Leuven

Fighting the southern green stink bug

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!
Melissa
Schuring
KU Leuven

Showtime! Stereotypes about English loanwords in children

'Yow', 'Peace', 'Man'. Those English loanwords fly around joyfully when Melissa Schuring asks children for her research to briefly imitate a rapper. Very different, in fact, from when she has them play a farmer or a minister. Experiments like this teach her more about the development of linguistic stereotypes in children. In her video, she tells you more about her research.