8 A microfluidic system is used to grow nerve cells that simulate an im- portant signal pathway in the brain. This pathway is damaged in patients who suffer from Parkinson’s disease. In his master’s thesis at the Technical University of Denmark, Sebastian Buch- mann worked on the development of one example of a two-dimensional brain model on a chip. It’s all about science Scanning probe microscopes can be used to image surfaces in atomic resolution. In his master’s thesis at the Department of Physics, University of Basel, Sebastian Scherb investigated whether the electro- spray method is suitable for depositing large molecules on surfaces without destroying the molecules in the process. Using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds, it’s possible to detect the magnetic fields of tiny magnetic particles in liquids. Gabriel Zihlmann used NV centers to image bacteria for his master’s thesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA).