A week with Eelke and Julius Zero Hunger Lab researchers Eelke Bakker (26) and Julius Kaut (27) like giving their lives big twists. So, she will soon be cycling to Tajikistan, while he fantasizes about moving to Brabant, having previously lived in Myanmar, Norway, and Israel, among other places. Meanwhile, their minds travel to the Horn of Africa every morning. Why? The duo explains in this candid report of their week. Editing: Sebastiaan van de Water
MONDAY
food security in the Horn of Africa. This week, we hope to complete the first draft.
Eelke 9:32 AM
Our Plan B goes into effect today. It feels good after months of preparation, but honestly? Plan A would have been even more exciting. In that case, I would have been on a stage in Uganda today, to give d ata-science training to East African agriculturists. Covid wasn’t the only thing that thwarted our plan. Arranging visas for all the participants from South Sudan and Somalia was at risk of b ecoming a bureaucratic nightmare. But scrap the courses? No way! They are the first pillar of the project that I’m working on with Julius. On behalf of the Zero Hunger Lab, we want to increase local clout in the Horn of Africa to prevent famines. So, we quickly had brochures distributed about our alternative: a customized video course. The first recordings will start soon. Here in Tilburg, that is. In a sweater and jeans, in a deserted lecture hall.
Julius 2:20 PM
I hear the floor above me creak as my parents walk back and forth. I had hoped to live in Tilburg by now, but I underestimated the housing crisis in the Netherlands. So, for weeks I have been living and working in the basement of my parents’ new house in the 14 | New Scientist | Special Zero Hunger Lab
TUESDAY Eelke 5:44 PM
Julius’ workplace, in the basement of his parents’ house
German town of Durmersheim. I am now sitting at an old-fashioned school desk with two monitors on it. A window lets in some daylight. Outside flows the Rhine, and beyond that lies France. But in my head, I’m somewhere else. For months, Eelke and I have been working on the second pillar of our project: a paper in which we try to quantify
It feels strange to have to talk enthusiastically to four hundred empty chairs. Normally, I like to look at the faces in the audience when I teach. All that frowning and whispering helps me assess whether my explanation of missing values is catching on, or whether I’m rambling on too much about clever use of color in data visualization. But you can get used to anything, as has been proved today. I’m not saying I’m going to launch my own YouTube channel, because I have yet to watch the footage and I’ll probably get annoyed with my wild gestures. But when my colleague Miriam was recently speculating about a podcast about data science... Well, that seems like fun. Now I have to finish my bowl of soup here at the university and then go back to my little room in Tilburg.
Julius 6:50 PM
Surely being a farmer in Somalia is different from running a farm here near the Black Forest. Today, I delved into the disaster
