BY BERT BLOCKEN. Realizing a successful long breakaway, as a lone rider, against a chasing peloton or a smaller group of chasing riders, is very challenging. Not many riders in the professional cycling peloton are capable of such an undertaking. These performances appeal to our imagination and our emotions. But also from an objective, scientific point of view, these performances are exceptional.

BY LUC SELS, GERARD GOVERS, TINE BAELMANS, PIET DESMET, HILDE FEYS, PETER LIEVENS, REINE MEYLAERTS, BART RAYMAEKERS, AND CHRIS VAN GEET. With its statements about homosexuality, the Vatican encourages exclusion. KU Leuven wishes to be an inclusive, catholic university.

BY HOLGER WILLEMS, JOLIEN VAN OPSTAL, and CAROLINA SHAHRESTANI. Among students, Erasmus+ is the most widely known scholarship programme. Erasmus exchanges are so highly in demand one would almost forget that there are many other funding opportunities for students wishing to travel abroad for a study period or traineeship. Take Holger, Jolien and Carolina, for instance. Holger and Jolien attended summer schools in Utrecht and Zürich, whereas Carolina decided to set off for Norway to do a traineeship.

BY KAI KAROS. The current coronavirus pandemic has an impact on all of us. Still, some populations are arguably more affected than others. The various social measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus may disproportionately affect people with long-term painful conditions. Now that we are slowly trying to find the way to a post-pandemic future, it is important that these people don’t fall by the wayside.

BY COLINE HACOT. Soil erosion may sound like a technical, distant topic that scares off the average non-scientist, even an environmentally sensitive one (myself included). Because the science behind it is intimidating, or because soils aren’t cool, it’s easy to overlook erosion. That’s a pity, because healthy soils are important to all of us, and it matters to look at what EU politicians are doing to protect them.