Worms in a maze - HIMS

Particles that can move on their own (“active matter”) are currently a hot topic in physics. The theory to describe such particles is still being developed. As a consequence, experiments on well-characterized active matter are much needed. Bachelor student Tess Heeremans performed experiments in which she managed, for the first time, to sort active matter by activity level. To this end, she used a method from chemistry: chromatography. The active “particles” were… tiny worms.