Welcome to “A Spoonful Of Science”, the blog of CEBE

“A Spoonful of Science” is born as a Science Communication (SciComm) initiative to bridge between society and the scientific world that Spanish Scientists in Belgium (CEBE) represents. In short, to emphasize that understanding and enjoying science are not pleasures reserved for scientists only.

To meet a broad range of scientific fields and interests, “A Spoonful of Science” consists of two blog post types: “The Science Chronicles” seek to cover a scientific topic in depth or record a CEBE SciComm event whereas “CEBE answers” provide a short and accurate explanation written by scientists to open scientific questions. To promote the interaction between scientists and society, the general public has the option to send their questions about science through the blog’s website (see the tool on the right-hand side of this post).

If you are a scientist and you would like to explain your research to a broad audience or answer one of the many questions of our readers, please contact us on comunicacion.cientifica@cebebelgica.es. If writing is not your cup of tea, don’t worry! This is your blog too!! Science is also visual, so you can always help illustrating one of the blog entries.

Would you like to send us a question?

“Do you have a burning question that you would like a scientist to answer? Or a topic you would like to learn about? Send it to us!”


Towards the recovery of Europe: innovation, employment and mobility

Comisión de Política y Diplomacia Científica de CEBE; CEBE Science Policy and Diplomacy Committee · 14-01-2021 10:00 · Webinars

Here you can find the third online seminar of the cycle "Towards the recovery of Europe: innovation, employment and mobility".

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How does immunotherapy against cancer work?

Diana Campillo Davó · 14-01-2021 10:00 · CEBE answers

In the first blog entry about cancer immunotherapy, I guided you through the ins and outs of how our own immune system can help us fight cancer and the strategies that are used to help and improve this system in that fight. In this second entry, I am going to explain vaccines based on tumor proteins and those vaccines used against cancer-related viruses.

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What are the Millennium Prize problems?

Jennifer Alonso García · 14-01-2021 10:00 · CEBE answers

Mathematics rules most natural and scientific phenomena. But not all problems have been solved yet and here I tell you all about the most famous ones, the Millenium Prize problems!

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Towards the recovery of Europe

Comisión de Política y Diplomacia Científica de CEBE; CEBE Science Policy and Diplomacy Committee · 14-01-2021 10:00 · Science Chronicles

Have you heard of the Recovery Plan for Europe? Do you know what it consists of? In this post you will find all related information about the three online seminars that CEBE organized, between September and November 2020, to announce the set of initiatives that emerged within the Recovery Plan for Europe in the areas of science, innovation and industry, as well as to analyse the consequences of the health and social crisis caused by the pandemic in terms of mobility and employment.

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Deciphering the human essence

CEBE SciComm · 11-12-2020 10:00 · CEBE's online events

Here you can watch again the event "Deciphering the human essence", in which the Spanish paleoanthropologist Juan Luis Arsuaga and the Belgian neuroscientist Axel Cleeremans discussed the different aspects of the human essence.

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What is transgenic food? Is it dangerous if I eat it?

Laura Ledesma García · 15-11-2020 10:00 · Science Chronicles

The topic of transgenic food is currently one of the most controversial in the field of science, and the debate around it involves the health of human beings, as well as the interests of farmers and companies in the agricultural and biotechnology industry. In this post I explain what they are and why they are not dangerous to health.

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Genome à la carte. How does CRISPR-Cas9 work?

Montse López · 15-11-2020 10:00 · CEBE answers

In October of 2020, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for designing the tool that allows modifying the cellular genome in a desired position. But what is CRISPR and how does it work?

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What is quantum computing?

Daniel Pérez · 15-11-2020 10:00 · CEBE answers

Quantum computing is about to start a technological revolution. Here, we will tell you how and why!

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What are shooting stars?

Ana Escorza Santos · 15-10-2020 10:00 · CEBE answers

Spoiler alert! Shooting stars are not stars but little pieces of a comet that have visited our neighborhood in the solar system. In this post we will explain their formation and origin and we will talk about the most popular meteor showers.

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How does immunotherapy against cancer work?

Diana Campillo Davó · 15-10-2020 10:00 · CEBE answers

The immune system, our great ally against infections, is also an essential tool in our fight against cancer. But how does it do it?

 

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Clinical trials: always looking after our health

Sandra Domínguez Manchola · 15-10-2020 10:00 · Science Chronicles

How many times, due to catching a cold or the flu in those winter days, have we approached our "medicine cabinet" and taken an aspirin, ibuprofen or a frenadol to relieve its associated discomfort. Have you ever wondered how did that medicine you are taking get to your house? Sure, you bought it at the pharmacy…But how does that product reach the market? In this post, we are going to explain the hard life of medicines and the stages that they have to go through in clinical trials so that you can get better from the living room of your house, the typical winter couch day of a sofa, flick, blanket and… a bad flu!

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What is an artificial neural network?

Ana Barragán Montero · 01-09-2020 10:00 · CEBE answers

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming part of our lives. However, many people still imagine AI as something futuristic and hard to understand, typical from sci-fi movies but far from our daily routine. But is it really something reserved for computer science experts? In this post we introduce the concept of one of the building blocks of AI: the artificial neural network (ANN).

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What is the difference between bacteria and viruses?

Mónica Vara Pérez · 01-09-2020 10:00 · CEBE answers

Nowadays, we all carry with us a disinfecting gel with bactericidal and virucidal properties, but why this distinction? Are virus and bacteria so different? Well, yes, they are and in this blog entry we will cover the main differences between the two.

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How should men help to reach gender equality?

Mónica Vara Pérez · 01-09-2020 10:00 · Gender equality in science · Science Chronicles

Question discussed during the roundtable: "Towards gender equality in science: are we on the right track?"

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Webinar 1 - “What does being a science communicator mean?”

CEBE SciComm · 01-09-2020 10:00 · Webinars

Get to know everything about the first webinar from the series “Translating knowledge: the world of scientific communication and illustration”

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Webinar 2 - “Scientific illustration: the artistic side of science”

CEBE SciComm · 01-09-2020 10:00 · Webinars

Did you miss the webinar on scientific illustration? You can re-watch it and learn more about what the more artistic side of science can offer to you

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Gender equality in science, we are not there yet

Mónica Vara Pérez · 01-09-2020 10:00 · Gender equality in science · Science Chronicles

As part of the event series «Girls and Women in Science», past March 6th CEBE organized a round table «Towards gender equality in science: are we on the right track?». This blog post dives through and deepens into the main topics discussed during this roundtable, which I had the pleasure to moderate.

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What are the current solutions? Are they working?

Mónica Vara Pérez · 01-09-2020 10:00 · Gender equality in science · Science Chronicles

Questions discussed during the roundtable: "Towards gender equality in science: are we on the right track?"

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Is meritocracy based on true merits?

Mónica Vara Pérez · 01-09-2020 10:00 · Gender equality in science · Science Chronicles

Question discussed during the roundtable: "Towards gender equality in science: are we on the right track?"

 

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Why are girls, in general, less attracted to STEM degrees?

Mónica Vara Pérez · 01-09-2020 10:00 · Gender equality in science · Science Chronicles

Question discussed during the roundtable: "Towards gender equality in science: are we on the right track?"

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Is our economic system promoting gender inequality?

Mónica Vara Pérez · 01-09-2020 10:00 · Gender equality in science · Science Chronicles

Question discussed during the roundtable: "Towards gender equality in science: are we on the right track?"

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Collaborative partners

This blog is supported by the Arts and Culture section of the Spanish Embassy in Belgium and by the Brussels section of the “Instituto Cervantes”, under the SciComm initiative #SPreadScience.

Instituto Cervantes Arts and Culture section of the Spanish Embassy

Disclaimer: The content of each post in “A Spoonful Of Science” is the responsibility of the corresponding author(s). Therefore, the viewpoints expressed on the blog are those of the author(s) of each post, which do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints, thoughts and opinions of CEBE members and representatives.