When we pour a carbonated drink into a cup, we see small droplets popping over the surface. This happens because air bubbles float up in water and burst on the water surface, ejecting water particles into the air. These water particles are called ‘aerosols.’ In general, aerosols are tiny particles whose size ranges from a few nanometers to several micrometers that freely float in the atmosphere. Water droplets, dust, smoke, and water haze are typical examples of aerosols. They may either act as cloud condensation nuclei stimulating cloud formation, or scatter and absorb solar light..

In 2008, POSTECH Alumnus Dr. Donghun Lee made an unexpected discovery during his study of single dopants in Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) semiconductors, which are used for satellites or military products. A dopant is a substance that produces a desired electrical characteristic for semiconductors, and Dr. Lee had been studying a defect semiconductor where one of the lattice points had a dopant atom missing. He experimented by pushing the atom to the next lattice point, and surprisingly, the atoms automatically rearranged themselves to fill the vacant places as in a puzzle game. Now the defect produ..

Professor Kwang Soo Kim has come forth with a revolutionary and unprecedented method for DNA sequencing that can potentially decode 3 billion pairs of human genes in an hour. The field of DNA sequencing caught the world’s attention when the Human Genome Project was successfully completed in 2003, and many developed nations have since been competing to develop ways to increase the speed of genetic sequencing and analysis. This research is closely related with treating intractable or rare diseases and therefore will have important implications for life science. Professor Kim, well-known fo..

It is interesting that a scientific explanation can be given about the differences between a successful and unsuccessful sports player in major professional games such as the USA Major League Baseball or NBA, or the UK Premier League. POSTECH Professor Woo-Sung Jung and Professor H. Eugene Stanleya at Boston University, USA, formed a joint research team to study the above. Titled ‘Quantitative and Empirical Demonstration of the Matthew Effect in a Study of Career Longevity,’ their paper illustrated how the Matthew effect works on professional sports in Korea, the UK and the USA, an..

As it is better to wear clothes that fit you well rather than to try on many possible sizes, it is also most prudent to take pills that cure your ailments precisely without triggering unwanted side-effects. A POSTECH joint research team has contributed to the forthcoming era of customized medicines by developing a very precise way to detect the genetic variations among individuals. The team has made it possible to prescribe appropriate therapeutic administrations for each individual. This new technology can assign the most appropriate pills for a cold, anticipate the effects of new anti-cancer..

A new drug delivery system, whose nanopores open or close depending on electrical stimulus, has been established by Professor Jin Kon Kim, Director of National Creativity Research Initiative Program for Block Copolymer Self-Assembly. The device can also be manipulated by a remote controller while being planted inside a human body. Published on Nano Letters (11(3), 1284-1288 (2011)), an authoritative journal on nanoscience, the article, ‘Electrically Actuatable Smart Nanoporous Membrane for Pulsatile Drug Release,’ discusses how the new device can freely control the release of drugs..

Professor Kimoon Kim and his team revealed that cucurbiturils, small nano-sized molecules, can enable the analysis of many types of cancer and of stem cells in a very simple manner similar to fishing. Named after the plant family ‘Curcurbitaceae’ and shaped like hollow pumpkins, cucurbiturils can hold various ions or molecules like ferrocene inside, and can have ions attached on top and below through host-guest interactions, which means they have great potential for various applications. The compound was first synthesized in Germany around a century ago and its structure was elucid..

Professor Hyung Joon Cha, Chemical Engineering Department, has been known for his work on cell adhesives that induce the bioactivity of cells. His adhesives were devised after special characteristics of cells by combining mussel adhesion proteins and bioactive peptides that send certain signals to cells. His work was introduced in the publication of Biomaterials, an authoritative journal in biomaterial science, in December, 2010. Professor Cha’s research team is consisted of Research Professor Yoo-sung Choi and PhD candidate Bong-hyuk Choi. Mussels use their adhesion proteins not to be s..

Arsenic is a poisonous metalloid that pollutes the land and drinking water in many countries in Southeast Asia, mainly in Bangladesh or Cambodia, and neither is a developed country free from this problem: it still remains in certain mining areas, timber or paper mills and industrial areas. The ingestion of crops contaminated by arsenic can cause cancer, digestive disorders and skin diseases, because it becomes accumulated in the human body instead of being digested or excreted. Professor Youngsook Lee, Department of Life Science, and her research team including Dr. Won-Yong Song, Postdoctoral ..

Hydrogen as an alternative source of energy is one of the key elements in building environment-friendly vehicles that do not emit carbon dioxide. Currently, the market for hydrogen vehicles is fiercely competitive among countries with large automobile markets like Korea, Japan, and the United States; the drive is to develop a way to sophisticate the existing technology at low cost and for large quantities. The problem is that the vehicles are much too expensive to become commercialized and they have certain drawbacks. Mid-sized hydrogen automobiles cost up to 90,000 US dollars; the fuel cell i..