Latest news with #ULB


eNCA
3 hours ago
- Science
- eNCA
From Antarctica to Brussels, hunting climate clues in old ice
BRUSSELS - In a small, refrigerated room at a Brussels university, parka-wearing scientists chop up Antarctic ice cores tens of thousands of years old in search of clues to our planet's changing climate. Trapped inside the cylindrical icicles are tiny air bubbles that can provide a snapshot of what the earth's atmosphere looked like back then. "We want to know a lot about the climates of the past because we can use it as an analogy for what can happen in the future," said Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Zekollari was part of a team of four that headed to the white continent in November on a mission to find some of the world's oldest ice -- without breaking the bank. Ice dating back millions of years can be found deep inside Antarctica, close to the South Pole, buried under kilometres of fresher ice and snow. But that's hard to reach and expeditions to drill it out are expensive. A recent EU-funded mission that brought back some 1.2-million-year-old samples came with a total price tag of around 11 million euros (around $12.8 million). To cut costs, the team from VUB and the nearby Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) used satellite data and other clues to find areas where ancient ice might be more accessible. - Blue ice - AFP | Nicolas TUCAT Just like the water it is made of, ice flows towards the coast -- albeit slowly, explained Maaike Izeboud, a remote sensing specialist at VUB. And when the flow hits an obstacle, say a ridge or mountain, bottom layers can be pushed up closer to the surface. In a few rare spots, weather conditions like heavy winds prevent the formation of snow cover -- leaving thick layers of ice exposed. Named after their colouration, which contrasts with the whiteness of the rest of the continent, these account for only about one percent of Antarctica territory. "Blue ice areas are very special," said Izeboud. Her team zeroed in on a blue ice stretch lying about 2,300 meters above sea level, around 60 kilometres from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station. Some old meteorites had been previously found there -- a hint that the surrounding ice is also old, the researchers explained. A container camp was set up and after a few weeks of measurements, drilling, and frozen meals, in January the team came back with 15 ice cores totalling about 60 meters in length. These were then shipped from South Africa to Belgium, where they arrived in late June. Inside a stocky cement ULB building in the Belgian capital, they are now being cut into smaller pieces to then be shipped to specialised labs in France and China for dating. Zekollari said the team hopes some of the samples, which were taken at shallow depths of about 10 meters, will be confirmed to be about 100,000 years old. - Climate 'treasure hunt' - This would allow them to go back and dig a few hundred meters deeper in the same spot for the big prize. AFP | Nicolas TUCAT "It's like a treasure hunt," Zekollari, 36, said, comparing their work to drawing a map for "Indiana Jones". "We're trying to cross the good spot on the map... and in one and a half years, we'll go back and we'll drill there," he said. "We're dreaming a bit, but we hope to get maybe three, four, five-million-year-old ice." Such ice could provide crucial input to climatologists studying the effects of global warming. Climate projections and models are calibrated using existing data on past temperatures and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere -- but the puzzle has some missing pieces. By the end of the century temperatures could reach levels similar to those the planet last experienced between 2.6 and 3.3 million years ago, said Etienne Legrain, 29, a paleo-climatologist at ULB. But currently there is little data on what CO2 levels were back then -- a key metric to understand how much further warming we could expect. "We don't know the link between CO2 concentration and temperature in a climate warmer than that of today," Legrain said. His team hopes to find it trapped inside some very old ice. "The air bubbles are the atmosphere of the past," he said. "It's really like magic when you feel it."


Ya Biladi
10 hours ago
- General
- Ya Biladi
Diaspo #398 : From Belgium to Morocco, Sarra El Messaoudi celebrates our migrant heritage
Born in Brussels, Sarra El Messaoudi grew up with her two brothers and sister in a distinctly cosmopolitan city. Yet during her primary school years, she was often the only student from a diverse background. Her mother, a Belgian nurse, and her father, an interior designer from Bouyafa near Nador, were always deeply involved in their children's education. Today, the young journalist looks back on that time with pride, remembering herself as always being «top of the class». «I was lucky to have a mother who had the tools to support us with our studies and homework at home. I know not everyone has that privilege, but her help allowed me to maintain a strong academic performance», Sarra El Messaoudi recalls. She attended schools in the Brussels municipalities of Evere, Molenbeek, and Schaerbeek, where she encountered greater diversity during her middle school years. It was during that period that she began to think about her future, inspired by a growing passion for books and reading. «I developed those skills thanks to my mother, who always kept books around the house. My father, meanwhile, introduced me to calligraphy on a wooden board at home. I've always loved writing and storytelling». A Reflection of Belgium's Diversity Ambitious and grounded from a young age, Sarra El Messaoudi always had a clear sense of direction. «I knew that while I waited to become a writer, I needed to build a stable career. Journalism seemed like the perfect balance between the two», she tells us. At the intersection of personal stories and shared human experiences, her passion for storytelling draws not only from her own life, but also from her family, her community, and her diverse city. «My mother is Belgian through and through. On my father's side, my grandfather came to Belgium from Morocco in the 1960s as part of the labor migration agreement between the two countries. My father joined him later, along with my grandmother, through family reunification. My roots are in those working-class migrant families. We all come from somewhere, and understanding that helps us take ownership of our stories, so we can honor them instead of hiding them». At just 13, Sarra El Messaoudi already had a clear idea of the path she wanted to pursue. She took her first steps into journalism through the print media. After earning a degree in communications and a master's in journalism from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), she joined the editorial staff at La Dernière Heure (DH) before contributing to television news reports for RTBF. Now a journalist, trainer, and speaker, she creates social impact projects and works as a podcast producer and director. Specializing in diversity and inclusion (DEI) and media education (EMI), she is dedicated to promoting «a more inclusive media landscape» based on what she sees and experiences in the field. During her early years in journalism, Sarra was struck by how little the diversity she saw in Brussels was reflected in the media. Television, in particular, felt disconnected from the plurality of experiences lived daily off-screen. «On TV, I rarely saw people who looked like me. First of all, there weren't many women. And those from diverse backgrounds were nearly invisible. The few women who did appear often seemed like they had to apologize for being there». Telling the Stories That Don't Get Told Determined to shift the narrative, Sarra made it her mission to go beyond the reductive ways in which stories of diversity and migration are often presented, as short, one-and-a-half-minute news pieces. She wants to «interview a broader range of people and improve how these topics are handled». She contributes to Les Grenades, the RTBF media platform that covers current events through a gendered lens. In her search for the right format to tell the stories that make up Brussels' cultural mosaic, Sarra launched a podcast series called Nos Héritages («Our Heritages»). Her goal is to «give voice to all the layers of Belgium's diversity», not just her own binational community. These stories range from triumph and resilience to fragmentation and hardship, each deserving a meaningful space in the media. «As we work on these projects, we realize how little we actually know about our parents' migration journeys», Sarra explains. More than a podcast, the project is driven by a sense of urgency to preserve the undocumented histories of the first generation of migrants. «Our grandparents are passing away, and that whole first generation is disappearing. What's left of them, and of us? There's a real urgency to tell our stories and reclaim those stories in formats that allow space and depth, instead of restricting people to a few minutes or a narrow angle». For Sarra, it's essential that those whose stories are being told feel empowered to speak on more than just cultural or religious issues. «Before the interviews, I have a conversation with each guest to decide which story they want to share. It's a process of both transmission and reclamation», she says. This commitment extends into her volunteer work. As a project leader within the Association for Diversity and Inclusion in the Media (ADIM), she promotes equal opportunity and representation in the media industry. Through ADIM, Sarra organizes workshops, networking events, and peer exchanges «to help women enter the profession and then stay in it», which, as she notes, remains a major challenge in a field still marked by racism, sexism, cyberviolence, and precarity. Her aim is to create a safe space where professionals can speak freely, reflect collectively, and confront the systemic issues facing journalism today. Family Histories and the «Sun Map» of Memory Beyond documenting personal stories through sound, Sarra is also invested in building collective memory in public spaces. She regularly organizes events linked to her podcast projects «to spark conversations and celebrate our cultures». For the 60th anniversary of the Belgium-Morocco labor migration agreement, she dedicated one of her signature projects to the shared memory between the two countries, told by the people who lived it. «I was lucky to carry out an entire project on the Belgian-Moroccan community, including an event in Brussels that brought together over 200 people. We revisited our memories and those of our grandparents, especially with the presence of Mohamedi Ben Yadir, the Moroccan-Algerian author behind what's known as the 'sun map'». This map holds deep meaning for Belgian-Moroccan families. Sarra explains: «Back then, people didn't have GPS to guide them on the road to Morocco for summer holidays. Many families who drove down to Spain would sometimes get lost. To solve this, Mohamedi Ben Yadir created 400 printed maps and distributed them in shops popular with the community. That's how the 'sun map' was born. The tribute in Brussels was deeply emotional for all of us». Following the success of that project, Sarra was invited to turn it into a guided tour in Brussels. «I never thought I'd be doing that one day! The tour was built around excerpts from the podcasts featuring Belgian-Moroccan guests. We revisited the political context of the labor agreement, the social and economic realities of the migrant families, and their grassroots mobilization against racism», she says. It was also a chance to trace earlier histories, starting with Belgium's colonial past, and connect it to current realities, from the rise of far-right ideologies and growing hostility toward immigrants, to Islamophobia and police violence and the question of what makes a person feel at home in Belgium. Through these stories, «people discover one of the country's most significant communities, in a memory project that links the past, the present, and the future». «It's meaningful for older generations to see their stories told, and for younger ones to discover a history they didn't know», Sarra El Messaoudi says with quiet pride.


Observer
2 days ago
- Science
- Observer
Scientists hunt ancient ice for climate clues
UMBERTO BACCHI In a small, refrigerated room at a Brussels university, parka-wearing scientists chop up Antarctic ice cores tens of thousands of years old in search of clues to our planet's changing climate. Trapped inside the cylindrical icicles are tiny air bubbles that can provide a snapshot of what the earth's atmosphere looked like back then. "We want to know a lot about the climates of the past because we can use it as an analogy for what can happen in the future", said Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Zekollari was part of a team of four that headed to the white continent in November on a mission to find some of the world's oldest ice — without breaking the bank. Ice dating back millions of years can be found deep inside Antarctica, close to the South Pole, buried under kilometres of fresher ice and snow. But that's hard to reach and expeditions to drill it out are expensive. A recent EU-funded mission that brought back some 1.2-million-year-old samples came with a total price tag of around $12.8 million. To cut costs, the team from VUB and the nearby Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) used satellite data and other clues to find areas where ancient ice might be more accessible. Belgian scientists holds blue ice samples in a laboratory in Brussels. - AFP BLUE ICE Just like the water it is made of, ice flows towards the coast — albeit slowly, explained Maaike Izeboud, a remote sensing specialist at VUB. And when the flow hits an obstacle, say a ridge or mountain, bottom layers can be pushed up closer to the surface. In a few rare spots, weather conditions like heavy winds prevent the formation of snow cover — leaving thick layers of ice exposed. Named after their colouration, which contrasts with the whiteness of the rest of the continent, these account for only about one per cent of Antarctica territory. "Blue ice areas are very special", said Izeboud. Her team zeroed in on a blue ice stretch lying about 2,300 metres above sea level, around 60 kilometres from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station. Some old meteorites had been previously found there — a hint that the surrounding ice is also old, the researchers explained. A container camp was set up and after a few weeks of measurements, drilling and frozen meals, in January the team came back with 15 ice cores totalling about 60 metres in length. These were then shipped from South Africa to Belgium, where they arrived in late June. Inside a stocky cement ULB building in the Belgian capital, they are now being cut into smaller pieces to then be shipped to specialised labs in France and China for dating. Zekollari said the team hopes some of the samples, which were taken at shallow depths of about 10 meters, will be confirmed to be about 100,000 years old. A Belgian scientist handles blue ice samples in a laboratory in Brussels. - AFP CLIMATE 'TREASURE HUNT' This would allow them to go back and dig a few hundred metres deeper in the same spot for the big prize. "It's like a treasure hunt", Zekollari, 36, said, comparing their work to drawing a map for "Indiana Jones". "We're trying to cross the good spot on the map... and in one and a half years, we'll go back and we'll drill there", he said. "We're dreaming a bit, but we hope to get maybe three, four, five-million-year-old ice". Such ice could provide crucial input to climatologists studying the effects of global warming. Climate projections and models are calibrated using existing data on past temperatures and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — but the puzzle has some missing pieces. — AFP


Time of India
2 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
From Antarctica to Brussels, hunting climate clues in old ice
BRUSSELS: In a small, refrigerated room at a Brussels university, parka-wearing scientists chop up Antarctic ice cores tens of thousands of years old in search of clues to our planet's changing climate. Trapped inside the cylindrical icicles are tiny air bubbles that can provide a snapshot of what the earth's atmosphere looked like back then. "We want to know a lot about the climates of the past because we can use it as an analogy for what can happen in the future," said Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Zekollari was part of a team of four that headed to the white continent in November on a mission to find some of the world's oldest ice -- without breaking the bank. Ice dating back millions of years can be found deep inside Antarctica, close to the South Pole, buried under kilometres of fresher ice and snow. But that's hard to reach and expeditions to drill it out are expensive. A recent EU-funded mission that brought back some 1.2-million-year-old samples came with a total price tag of around 11 million euros (around $12.8 million). To cut costs, the team from VUB and the nearby Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) used satellite data and other clues to find areas where ancient ice might be more accessible. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 11 Foods That Help In Healing Knee Pain Naturally Undo - Blue ice - Just like the water it is made of, ice flows towards the coast -- albeit slowly, explained Maaike Izeboud, a remote sensing specialist at VUB. And when the flow hits an obstacle, say a ridge or mountain, bottom layers can be pushed up closer to the surface. In a few rare spots, weather conditions like heavy winds prevent the formation of snow cover -- leaving thick layers of ice exposed. Named after their colouration, which contrasts with the whiteness of the rest of the continent, these account for only about one percent of Antarctica territory. "Blue ice areas are very special," said Izeboud. Her team zeroed in on a blue ice stretch lying about 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) above sea level, around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station. Some old meteorites had been previously found there -- a hint that the surrounding ice is also old, the researchers explained. A container camp was set up and after a few weeks of measurements, drilling, and frozen meals, in January the team came back with 15 ice cores totalling about 60 meters in length. These were then shipped from South Africa to Belgium, where they arrived in late June. Inside a stocky cement ULB building in the Belgian capital, they are now being cut into smaller pieces to then be shipped to specialised labs in France and China for dating. Zekollari said the team hopes some of the samples, which were taken at shallow depths of about 10 meters, will be confirmed to be about 100,000 years old. - Climate 'treasure hunt' - This would allow them to go back and dig a few hundred meters deeper in the same spot for the big prize. "It's like a treasure hunt," Zekollari, 36, said, comparing their work to drawing a map for "Indiana Jones". "We're trying to cross the good spot on the map... and in one and a half years, we'll go back and we'll drill there," he said. "We're dreaming a bit, but we hope to get maybe three, four, five-million-year-old ice." Such ice could provide crucial input to climatologists studying the effects of global warming . Climate projections and models are calibrated using existing data on past temperatures and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere -- but the puzzle has some missing pieces. By the end of the century temperatures could reach levels similar to those the planet last experienced between 2.6 and 3.3 million years ago, said Etienne Legrain, 29, a paleo-climatologist at ULB. But currently there is little data on what CO2 levels were back then -- a key metric to understand how much further warming we could expect. "We don't know the link between CO2 concentration and temperature in a climate warmer than that of today," Legrain said. His team hopes to find it trapped inside some very old ice. "The air bubbles are the atmosphere of the past," he said. "It's really like magic when you feel it." ub/ec/dc/tc


NDTV
2 days ago
- Science
- NDTV
From Antarctica To Brussels, Hunting Climate Clues In Old Ice
Belgium: In a small, refrigerated room at a Brussels university, parka-wearing scientists chop up Antarctic ice cores tens of thousands of years old in search of clues to our planet's changing climate. Trapped inside the cylindrical icicles are tiny air bubbles that can provide a snapshot of what the earth's atmosphere looked like back then. "We want to know a lot about the climates of the past because we can use it as an analogy for what can happen in the future," said Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Zekollari was part of a team of four that headed to the white continent in November on a mission to find some of the world's oldest ice -- without breaking the bank. Ice dating back millions of years can be found deep inside Antarctica, close to the South Pole, buried under kilometres of fresher ice and snow. But that's hard to reach and expeditions to drill it out are expensive. A recent EU-funded mission that brought back some 1.2-million-year-old samples came with a total price tag of around 11 million euros (around $12.8 million). To cut costs, the team from VUB and the nearby Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) used satellite data and other clues to find areas where ancient ice might be more accessible. Blue ice Just like the water it is made of, ice flows towards the coast -- albeit slowly, explained Maaike Izeboud, a remote sensing specialist at VUB. And when the flow hits an obstacle, say a ridge or mountain, bottom layers can be pushed up closer to the surface. In a few rare spots, weather conditions like heavy winds prevent the formation of snow cover -- leaving thick layers of ice exposed. Named after their colouration, which contrasts with the whiteness of the rest of the continent, these account for only about one percent of Antarctica territory. "Blue ice areas are very special," said Izeboud. Her team zeroed in on a blue ice stretch lying about 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) above sea level, around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station. Some old meteorites had been previously found there -- a hint that the surrounding ice is also old, the researchers explained. A container camp was set up and after a few weeks of measurements, drilling, and frozen meals, in January the team came back with 15 ice cores totalling about 60 meters in length. These were then shipped from South Africa to Belgium, where they arrived in late June. Inside a stocky cement ULB building in the Belgian capital, they are now being cut into smaller pieces to then be shipped to specialised labs in France and China for dating. Zekollari said the team hopes some of the samples, which were taken at shallow depths of about 10 meters, will be confirmed to be about 100,000 years old. Climate 'treasure hunt' This would allow them to go back and dig a few hundred meters deeper in the same spot for the big prize. "It's like a treasure hunt," Zekollari, 36, said, comparing their work to drawing a map for "Indiana Jones". "We're trying to cross the good spot on the map... and in one and a half years, we'll go back and we'll drill there," he said. "We're dreaming a bit, but we hope to get maybe three, four, five-million-year-old ice." Such ice could provide crucial input to climatologists studying the effects of global warming. Climate projections and models are calibrated using existing data on past temperatures and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere -- but the puzzle has some missing pieces. By the end of the century temperatures could reach levels similar to those the planet last experienced between 2.6 and 3.3 million years ago, said Etienne Legrain, 29, a paleo-climatologist at ULB. But currently there is little data on what CO2 levels were back then -- a key metric to understand how much further warming we could expect. "We don't know the link between CO2 concentration and temperature in a climate warmer than that of today," Legrain said. His team hopes to find it trapped inside some very old ice. "The air bubbles are the atmosphere of the past," he said. "It's really like magic when you feel it."