Mission 2026 - Hetty Helsmoortel

Mission 2026 The sharpest science news of the past year In 2026, Hetty turned 40. According to the average life expectancy, she is now statistically somewhere in the middle. Urgent time to take stock. Because ever since the day she could read, her existence has been filled with science and curiosity. Collecting stones, drawing robots, or trying to build the most stable sandcastles on the beach of Ostend. But does science remain that loyal ally in the second half of her life? What if she gets a diagnosis at 75 for which there is no treatment yet? Won't she be angry then, because maybe there was too much dawdling somewhere in 2026? Or just grateful for the things that did move forward in that year? Will that latest laundry-folding robot, for which the foundation may have been laid in 2026, be a blessing by then… or just an extra device that we have to descale? Because have we actually really gained more time since the invention of the dishwasher and the tumble dryer? And does her childlike enthusiasm for the new and ever-further exploration of space - with the moon at the forefront in 2026 - remain intact? Even if that moon might have become a place by then where we have gone to look for as many dreams as raw materials? In Missie 2026 Hetty’s hope, humor, and wonder come together again. She looks at the most striking scientific events of 2026 in her own way. For the sixth time in a row, she wants to send everyone back into the world after the show with zest and a head full of new insights. Wetenschapswatcher Hetty Helsmoortel is a woman with a mission. She wants to inspire everyone with her passion for science and technology, in the most diverse ways. There is gradually little you cannot know Hetty Helsmoortel from. She is part of the intergalactically popular Nerdland Podcast, with the Nerdland Scheurkalender she also hangs out with Lieven Scheire in many a Flemish toilet, and she wrote several bestsellers in the Nerdland book series. As a science watcher, she is a welcome guest on radio and television. Since 2021, she has been listing the most remarkable science news of the year in her witty theater tour 'Missie'. Finally, she is the artistic director of Nerdland Festival: the largest science festival in the Benelux, where science is served in an entertaining way and which has easily attracted thirty thousand visitors in recent years. After a doctorate in health sciences and eight years of cancer research, her true calling emerged. Hetty's mission is clear: to give science the place it deserves in our society, in the midst of people. Because we live in a world that is becoming increasingly complex and chaotic. And in such a context, science can offer many a foothold. “Hetty Helsmoortel proves that science can not only inform and amaze, but also entertain.” — De Standaard “A full-grown show that sends you into the future with much more knowledge and a solid straw of hope. Hetty Helsmoortel is firmly on course to become the favorite science comedian.” — Knack Focus “Hetty Helsmoortel is the dream date for those who trust and distrust science.” — Knack Focus “You don't have to be a nerd to find all that fascinating.” — First reaction afterwards at the cloakroom