Latest news with #GhentUniversity
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Gulls not so gutsy when they're alone, Ghent study suggests
Let's set the scene - you sit down to enjoy a delicious snack on a sunny day at the beach when a peckish gull swoops in and swipes your food!It's the stuff of nightmares, right? But the birds might not be as brave as their reputation suggests, according to a new study. The research shows gulls are more likely to take risks - including stealing food - when they're in a group compared to when they're alone. It's down to something called neophobia, which is a fear of things that are new or unfamiliar. As part of the study, a team of researchers from Ghent University in Belgium carried out tests with 54 young herring gulls. They wanted to find out if and how quickly the birds approached food with an unfamiliar object close by, and also whether being around other gulls impacted how quickly they went for the food. Each of the birds was given a unique marking before the test so they could be easily detected by a camera mounted on the roof. Before the testing, a plate filled with fish was placed at the back of an enclosure close to either an object the birds were already familiar with, or one that was brand new to them. Some of the objects included a blue bucket, a colourful ball and a yellow brush. Then either a single bird, or group of gulls was given access to the enclosure for 10 minutes at a time. What were the results? The study found the birds in groups were quicker to eat the food presented to them compared to gulls which were tested alone. More specifically, the birds in groups with familiar objects ate the food the quickest, with the birds in groups with new objects eating the food at the second fastest rate. Individual birds with unfamiliar objects took the longest time to eat, with 24 of them not eating anything during the trial. The final results suggest the presence of fellow gulls reduces the risk the birds feel when they're alone, encouraging them to behave with less caution. So next time you see a group of gulls eyeing up your food, watch out - you might want to make a move before they do!
Business Mayor
21-05-2025
- Science
- Business Mayor
Why a flock of seagulls will steal your lunch — but a lone gull won't act on its own
Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email A seagull eyeing your lunch or ice cream is unlikely to try to steal it if not part of a flock, scientists have found. Due to an instinct known as neophobia, which means a fear of the unknown, scientists have discovered that herring gulls are mostly reluctant to attack when on their own. But, according to researchers at Ghent University, this fear diminishes when seagulls are part of a flock – potentially putting your food at greater risk. (Getty/iStock) In a study published in the Royal Society Open Science journal, scientists carried out experiments involving a group of 54 seagulls they had reared from hatching. In order to gauge how quickly the gulls would take to approach their food if faced with an unfamiliar object nearby, the scientists placed a range of items – a multicoloured ball, a bucket, brush, folder and jerrycan – next to the gulls' food supply. Some of these objects were familiar to the birds and others were new to them. They found that, when alone, the gulls took an average of 9.81 seconds to approach their food bowl when faced with an unfamiliar object – compared with just 3.52 seconds when in a group. Notably, 24 of the gulls did not eat at all when alone and faced with an unfamiliar object. The scientists also found that the birds were willing to spend more time near their food when in a group than those on their own. Lone gulls spent an average of just 38.8 seconds near their food, compared with 111.8 seconds when in a group – while 16 birds did not approach their food at all. (Pexels/Engin Akyurt) The study states: 'Individuals tested in groups were quicker to eat and spent more time near a novel object than individuals tested alone. 'The results of our study suggest that the presence of group members reduces perceived individual risk, allowing individuals to behave less cautiously.' Noting that 'each bird likely perceives the risk to be shared by the group', the authors said their findings were consistent with previous studies showing that social animals often rely on the presence of the group to make quicker decisions and engage in potentially risky situations. An accompanying release from the Royal Society added: 'When confronted by a gull after your chips it might be best to catch them one-on-one.' While there may be some comfort in the findings that a lone seagull could pose less of a threat of theft, a previous study has suggested that gulls actually prefer food that they have seen being handled by humans, as opposed to food left lying unattended. Although in a further possible line of defence, an earlier study suggested that staring at a seagull could help to deter it from trying to take your food. Scientists at the University of Exeter found that gulls took an average of 21 seconds longer to approach a bag of chips if they could see they were being watched, with just 27 out of 74 birds observed being too cautious to take a chip when a human was nearby.
The Independent
03-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Europe will mark V-E Day's 80th anniversary as once-unbreakable bonds with the US are under pressure
The memory of blood dripping from trucks loaded with the mangled bodies of U.S. soldiers arriving at a nearby war cemetery straight from the battlefield in 1945 still gives 91-year-old Marcel Schmetz nightmares. It also instilled a lifelong sense of gratitude for the young soldiers from the United States and around the world who gave their lives battling the armies of Adolf Hitler to end World War II in Europe. Schmetz even built a museum at his home in the Belgian Ardennes to honor their sacrifice. 'If the Americans hadn't come, we wouldn't be here,' the Belgian retiree said. That same spirit also pervades Normandy in northern France, where the allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, a day that became the tipping point of the war. Eternal gratitude In Normandy, Marie-Pascale Legrand is still taking care of the ailing Charles Shay, a 100-year-old American who stormed the bloodied beaches on that fateful D-Day as a teenager and fought to help liberate Europe for many more months. 'Gratitude for me means that I am eternally indebted, because I can live free today,' Legrand said. After D-Day, it would take almost another year of fierce fighting before Germany would finally surrender on May 8, 1945. Commemorations and festivities are planned for the 80th anniversary across much of the continent for what has become known as Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, one of the most momentous days on the continent in recent centuries. Fraying bonds Ever since, for generation upon generation in the nations west of the Iron Curtain that sliced Europe in two, it became a day to confirm and reconfirm what were long seen as the unbreakable bonds with the United States as both stood united against Soviet Eastern Europe. No more. Over the past several months, the rhetoric from Washington has become increasingly feisty. The Trump administration has questioned the vestiges of the decades-old alliance and slapped trade sanctions on the 27-nation European Union and the United Kingdom. Trump has insisted that the EU trade bloc was there to 'screw' the United States from the start. The wartime allies are now involved in a trade war. 'After all that has happened, it is bound to leave scars,' said Hendrik Vos, European studies professor at Ghent University. Honoring the fallen Yet deep in the green hills and Ardennes woods where the Battle of the Bulge was fought and Schmetz lives, just as along the windswept bluffs of Legrand's Normandy, the ties endure — isolated from the tremors of geopolitics. 'For all those that criticize the Americans, we can only say that for us, they were all good,' Schmetz said. 'We should never forget that.' After watching the horrors of the dead soldiers at the nearby Henri-Chapelle cemetery as an 11-year-old, Schmetz vowed he would do something in their honor and gathered war memorabilia. A car mechanic with a big warehouse, he immediately started to turn it into the Remember Museum 39-45 once he retired more than three decades ago. 'I had to do something for those who died,' he said. And for the treasure trove of military artifacts, what truly stands out is a long bench in the kitchen where U.S. veterans, their children, and even their grandchildren come and sit and talk about what happened, and the bonds uniting continent, memories all meticulously kept by his wife Mathilde, to pass on to new visitors and new generations of schoolkids. 'The Big Red One' In the coming weeks, she will be going out to put 696 roses on the graves of soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division — nicknamed 'The Big Red One,' or 'BRO' — who lie buried among 7,987 headstones at Henri Chapelle. Charles Shay, who is now bedridden in Normandy, was also part of the 1st Infantry Division and came through the Ardennes region too before heading to Germany. He survived the Korean War too and started making visits to the D-Day beaches around two decades ago. Over the years, he became increasingly sick and Legrand, who has helped veterans in one way or another for more than 40 years, took him in to her home in 2018. He has been living there ever since. Reagan's impact The moment everything changed for Legrand was listening to then U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1984 speaking on a Normandy bluff of the sacrifice and heroism of American soldiers. Barely in her 20s, she realized that 'their blood is in our soil and we have to show gratitude. We have to do something. I didn't know what at the time, but I knew I would do something to show it.' She had long volunteered to help Allied veterans before she met Shay. He was lonely, sick and frail when she took him in and began caring for him at her Normandy home. 'It is a strong symbol, which takes on a new dimension in this day and age,' she said, referring to the tumultuous trans-Atlantic relations that have put the bonds between allies that Trump called 'unbreakable' only six years ago, under extreme pressure. Once an ally, always an ally? Central in Trump's criticism of European NATO allies is that they have happily hunkered far too long under U.S. military supremacy since World War II and should start paying much more of their own way in the alliance. He has done so in such terms that many Europeans sincerely fear the breakup of the trans-Atlantic bonds that were a core of global politics for almost a century. 'The naive belief that the Americans will, by definition, always be an ally — once and for all, that is gone,' said Vos. It also raises a moral question for Europeans now. 'Are we doomed to be eternally grateful?' Vos asked.
03-05-2025
- Politics
Europe will mark V-E Day's 80th anniversary as once-unbreakable bonds with the US are under pressure
THIMISTER-CLERMONT, Belgium -- The memory of blood dripping from trucks loaded with the mangled bodies of U.S. soldiers arriving at a nearby war cemetery straight from the battlefield in 1945 still gives 91-year-old Marcel Schmetz nightmares. It also instilled a lifelong sense of gratitude for the young soldiers from the United States and around the world who gave their lives battling the armies of Adolf Hitler to end World War II in Europe. Schmetz even built a museum at his home in the Belgian Ardennes to honor their sacrifice. 'If the Americans hadn't come, we wouldn't be here,' the Belgian retiree said. That same spirit also pervades Normandy in northern France, where the allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, a day that became the tipping point of the war. In Normandy, Marie-Pascale Legrand is still taking care of the ailing Charles Shay, a 100-year-old American who stormed the bloodied beaches on that fateful D-Day as a teenager and fought to help liberate Europe for many more months. 'Gratitude for me means that I am eternally indebted, because I can live free today,' Legrand said. After D-Day, it would take almost another year of fierce fighting before Germany would finally surrender on May 8, 1945. Commemorations and festivities are planned for the 80th anniversary across much of the continent for what has become known as Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, one of the most momentous days on the continent in recent centuries. Ever since, for generation upon generation in the nations west of the Iron Curtain that sliced Europe in two, it became a day to confirm and reconfirm what were long seen as the unbreakable bonds with the United States as both stood united against Soviet Eastern Europe. No more. Over the past several months, the rhetoric from Washington has become increasingly feisty. The Trump administration has questioned the vestiges of the decades-old alliance and slapped trade sanctions on the 27-nation European Union and the United Kingdom. Trump has insisted that the EU trade bloc was there to 'screw' the United States from the start. The wartime allies are now involved in a trade war. 'After all that has happened, it is bound to leave scars,' said Hendrik Vos, European studies professor at Ghent University. Yet deep in the green hills and Ardennes woods where the Battle of the Bulge was fought and Schmetz lives, just as along the windswept bluffs of Legrand's Normandy, the ties endure — isolated from the tremors of geopolitics. 'For all those that criticize the Americans, we can only say that for us, they were all good,' Schmetz said. 'We should never forget that.' After watching the horrors of the dead soldiers at the nearby Henri-Chapelle cemetery as an 11-year-old, Schmetz vowed he would do something in their honor and gathered war memorabilia. A car mechanic with a big warehouse, he immediately started to turn it into the Remember Museum 39-45 once he retired more than three decades ago. 'I had to do something for those who died,' he said. And for the treasure trove of military artifacts, what truly stands out is a long bench in the kitchen where U.S. veterans, their children, and even their grandchildren come and sit and talk about what happened, and the bonds uniting continent, memories all meticulously kept by his wife Mathilde, to pass on to new visitors and new generations of schoolkids. In the coming weeks, she will be going out to put 696 roses on the graves of soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division — nicknamed 'The Big Red One,' or 'BRO' — who lie buried among 7,987 headstones at Henri Chapelle. Charles Shay, who is now bedridden in Normandy, was also part of the 1st Infantry Division and came through the Ardennes region too before heading to Germany. He survived the Korean War too and started making visits to the D-Day beaches around two decades ago. Over the years, he became increasingly sick and Legrand, who has helped veterans in one way or another for more than 40 years, took him in to her home in 2018. He has been living there ever since. The moment everything changed for Legrand was listening to then U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1984 speaking on a Normandy bluff of the sacrifice and heroism of American soldiers. Barely in her 20s, she realized that 'their blood is in our soil and we have to show gratitude. We have to do something. I didn't know what at the time, but I knew I would do something to show it.' She had long volunteered to help Allied veterans before she met Shay. He was lonely, sick and frail when she took him in and began caring for him at her Normandy home. 'It is a strong symbol, which takes on a new dimension in this day and age,' she said, referring to the tumultuous trans-Atlantic relations that have put the bonds between allies that Trump called 'unbreakable' only six years ago, under extreme pressure. Central in Trump's criticism of European NATO allies is that they have happily hunkered far too long under U.S. military supremacy since World War II and should start paying much more of their own way in the alliance. He has done so in such terms that many Europeans sincerely fear the breakup of the trans-Atlantic bonds that were a core of global politics for almost a century. 'The naive belief that the Americans will, by definition, always be an ally — once and for all, that is gone,' said Vos. It also raises a moral question for Europeans now. 'Are we doomed to be eternally grateful?' Vos asked.
Forbes
07-04-2025
- Science
- Forbes
How Nature-Based Solutions Can Improve Indoor Air Quality
When people talk about indoor air quality, invariably the discussion soon turns to traditional heating ventilation systems and activated carbon filters. However, more and more nature-based systems are now being developed which offer a greener and healthier alternative. Green walls and moss-based filters are already on the market, but another possible interesting solution will be launched next month (May) at the Belgian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Italy. The Building Biospheres project aims to harness the natural intelligence of plants to actively manage the pavilion's indoor climate. The installation consists of more than 200 plants and occupies the pavilion's central area beneath the skylight. The Belgian pavilion has been initiated by the Flemish government and commissioned by the Flanders Architecture Institute, presented by curator and landscape architect Bas Smets in collaboration with neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso. Smets said he has been discussing with Mancuso how to use the natural intelligence of plants to manage an indoor climate for the last 10 years in an interview. Smets said if you can understand what specific plants need to thrive in those environments to clean and regulate the temperature of the air, then they can become an 'active agent' to create an indoor climate. In a natural way these plants can help to create the artificial climates found in most of today's buildings. 'What we are proposing is not just to bring plants into a building, but to rethink the purpose of architecture,' he told me. 'In the beginning, architecture was about survival, sheltering us from the rain, wind and sun. And now again in this climate crisis, architecture should be about survival, but not just about the survival of us humans, but also of plants. We need to create a new symbiosis between us, the plants and the architecture.' Smets said Building Biospheres will be in place for six months in Venice and they have chosen trees from the sub-tropical regions, Asia, Africa and America for their biosphere as they are particularly sturdy and suitable for an indoor environment, while offering the ideal climate for humans. Mancuso said sap slow readers and dendrometers are used to monitor the health of the trees and plants. These have been installed in collaboration with the University of Ghent. The harvested data is used to activate irrigation, lighting and ventilation to create a self-regulating microclimate. In the run up to the Venice Biennale, a greenhouse at Ghent University hosted a prototype of the installation for the pavilion made with the same trees. 'The idea is to give the plants the ability to adjust all the parameters of ventilation, lighting and irrigation according to their need, and so far, it seems to be working,' Mancuso told me. Smets added when people think of indoor plants, they still have a '19th century' idea of their role. 'We put a beautiful plant in a corner, give it a bit of water, and we see it as a decoration, not as an active agent of air quality,' said Smets. 'It's almost an inversion of the Victorian greenhouses, where they built a warmer environment to import plants from tropical climates. Now, we are using those plants indoors to make spaces cooler in a warming outside climate.' Another nature-based air quality solution is being developed by the Swedish startup Adsorbi, which in January announced it had raised €1M to build pilot plant for its air purification material made from Nordic wood. The material itself is derived from Nordic tree cellulose and designed for targeted pollutant capture, including key nitrogen oxides like nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). According to Adsorbi, the material can be used in air filters, products that remove bad odours, and museums to protect works of art. Adsorbi chief executive Hanna Johansson said it is ready to offer a commercial solution which does not require the use of fossil-based materials in a statement.
