LECTURES FOR THE XXIst CENTURY -- CONTENTS -- Lectures for the 21st century. Perspectives on Society and Science -- Genetics and genomics: from testing to treatment -- The human genome -- Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms -- Epigenetics: a major cause of variations on the same theme -- Mendelian diseases -- Multifactorial diseases -- Genetic testing -- Is genetic testing by internet meaningful? -- Genetic counseling and information for the patients -- Rare Diseases -- References and further reading -- The Historic and the Current Political Development in Belgium: for King and Lasagne -- Introduction -- The Belgian challenge -- A coat of two different fabrics with one button -- A history of changing concepts -- The current situation in Belgium -- Culture and public debate -- No Belgian parties -- The present day federal model -- A unique system -- The federal entities -- No hierarchy -- Federal or confederal? -- The Lasagne Model -- The lack of a common story -- One debate, one country? -- The common story -- Not just incidents … -- The future of Belgium -- And the European Union? -- Living off the Land in Africa:myths and reality -- Introduction -- Focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa -- Why no green revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa? -- Agro-ecologically, the land is less favoured -- Socio-economic and political conditions are extreme -- Little use of fertilizers: a matter of price only -- The controversy between organic and inorganic fertilizers -- The inadequacy of fertilizer recommendations -- Towards solutions -- Changes can be made -- Soil fertility is crucial and organic matter is the key -- Legumes or legumes? -- Conclusions -- References -- Human Rights, after 60 years. A philosophical reflection -- Human Rights, moral right -- Human Rights, a modern concept -- Middle Ages -- Declarations -- Declarations of Human Rights -- Treatises.

The significance of Human Rights -- Success and its limits -- Bibliography -- Art and Cultural Identity of The Low Countries -- Cultural Identity -- Cultural identity in art -- The artistic specificity of the culture of the Low Countries -- The Byzantine heritage -- The differences -- Analytic art versus synthetic art -- Realistic art versus idealised art -- Static art versus narrative art -- Contacts between cultures and mutual influences -- Cultural identity as the result of a construction process -- Flemish art versus Dutch art -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy -- Introduction -- The soul -- Soul research project -- Illustration of psychotherapy as care for the soul -- Experience of connectedness -- Human life is a bodily process -- Rituals as a way to nourish the soul -- Concluding remarks -- References -- The origins of human retroviruses -- Introduction -- Simian relatives of htlv and hiv -- Global epidemiology of htlv and hiv -- Transmission of human retroviruses -- The topology of the ptlv and piv tree suggests simian to human transmission -- Arguments in favour of natural simian to human transmission -- The simian to human transmission events can be dated -- Population history of htlv and hiv and correlation with historical events -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- Functional Food, Panacea or has the Emperor no Clothes -- Introduction -- A brief history of food -- Functional food, the definition -- Safety concerns -- Claims and legislation -- Types of functional food, claims -- Drivers in the functional food market -- Is functional food a likely concept? -- Conclusion: panacea or has the emperor no clothes? -- Sources -- History in the Age of Apology -- A culture of apology -- Apology versus Realpolitik -- Western relations with the non-Western world -- Apologies and forgiveness.

The culture of apology as a new social movement -- Intergenerational justice -- Speech act -- Criticism -- Conceptual vagueness -- Apology as a new form of Realpolitik -- Personalization and depolitizication -- The historian's role -- Bibliography -- Doping the athletein an age of presumed innocence: what if the lawyer wins the race? -- Warming up -- The athlete's legal environment -- Sports law: the two sides of the medal -- Public policy concerns and sporting interestsin EU law -- Criminal impact -- Disciplinary impact -- WADA and its Code -- The WADA sanctions and strict liability -- The intentional factor in the punishment -- The proof of a doping offence -- The requirement of strict validity -- Guilt and innocence -- Contractual impact -- Medical impact -- Social impact -- Final remarks -- Cooling down -- Bibliography -- As we are ignorant …the role of the university in education -- Three views on universities and education -- Specialization and service of the state -- Educating the citizen -- Bildung by autonomous research -- Challenging the idea of a university -- The lost unity of science -- Towards technoscience -- Massification and globalisation -- Enlightenment challenged -- As we are ignorant … -- Our limitations as grounding for education -- Dimensions of education -- Higher education: coherence and conflict -- The research dimension -- The societal dimension: professional orientation in university education -- The personal and community dimensions: responsible citizens and university education -- Conflict at the heart of the university -- References.