16-year-old Frederikke Uldahl from Vejle is headed to Brussels on Thursday to represent Denmark in a competition to crown Europe’s best young scientist.

Uldahl has already been named best young scientist in Denmark for her research on acne, in which she showed that treatments containing antibiotics could be problematic.

“When using antibiotics, there is a risk that the bacteria being treated can develop a resistance and the antibiotics will suddenly stop working,”  Uldahl told DR Nyheder.

Let’s just try this and see what happens
Uldahl said she became interested in the project after discovering that more and more young people are turning to antibiotics to combat acne.

Despite their tender years, young researchers often have an immediacy and fearlessness lacking in their adult counterparts.

“We adults can sometimes put a lot of walls up for ourselves,” said Katrine Bruhn Holck from the organisation Astra which sponsors the young scientist competition.

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“Young people just jump in and try things because they do not know that something has already been tried before without success.”