Videos

Did you know that there are about 7,000 languages in the world? And that more than 2,600 of these languages are in danger of extinction? With every language that disappears, we lose a unique part of the rich diversity that exists in human languages. That's why Dana Louagie studies Aboriginal languages.

What if we could make plastic out of... Wood waste? This is already possible today, but unfortunately the technology to make such bioplastics is not yet fully developed. Tim Croes wants to help change that.

Despite recent advances in breast cancer treatment, too many women still die once this cancer has spread throughout their body. That's why Matteo Rossi is looking to find weaknesses of breast cancer cells, in order to defeat them.

Extremely premature babies often need to be resuscitated at birth. While this might help them to survive, they will sometimes live on with severe disabilities. Is resuscitation therefore always in the best interest of the babies? Alice Cavolo wants to help parents and physicians in making this extremely difficult decision.

A cochlear implant makes it possible for the deaf and hearing impaired to hear well. This is a wonderful invention, but it requires some work to properly set up and keep the device up to date. But Ben Somers has a solution for that!

Too often, companies take too little account of the environmental impact of these inventions when developing new products. Gwenny Thomassen wants to change this: she developed a model to calculate both the cost price and the impact on the environment for products based on micro-algae.

Alexandre Chevalier studies plants from the past. He is convinced that this knowledge can help us to grow food in a more sustainable way.

Nowadays, 98 million tons of chicken are consumed every year, making it the second most consumed meat in the world, after pork. BUt what about the past? Well, Quentin Goffette tries to find out which place birds occupied in the daily life (or menu) of our ancestors. 

"The study of a simple fishbone, provides us with a lot of insights on economic, ecologic and social level." Needless to say Wim Wouters is a fan of fish bones. He investigates fish remains from numerous archeological sites in order to reconstruct the history of fishing. 

Gontran Sonet explains why it is important for the Museum of Natural Sciences to have large collections of specimens. They are paramount to gain better understanding of our fascinating planet.

Were Neandertals able to breakdance? We bet you never thought of that question before, but that you're dying to know the answer by now. Well, Tara Chapman virtually (re)constructs skeletons of Neandertals and fuses them to movement of modern human to find out how they could have moved about.

Why do some people get sick more easily than others? This is often due to differences in our immune systems. Nicolas De Neuter (UAntwerp) hopes to understand these differences, in order to develop better and more efficient personalized immune therapies.