How do you tell harmful, innocuous, and useful organisms apart? With the help of so-called dielectrophoresis, Sebastian Jäger and Bonnie Stanek from Pforta State School found out the answer to this question during an internship at the Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT). The method used by the two young researchers could also be used in the targeted search for pathogens and in soil analysis. The jury thought the research so unique that it received the president’s award in the “Young Researchers” competition. [The PDF below contains the full German press release]