Arsenic is a very toxic substance most widely used for wood preservers because it is a strong killer of insects and bacteria. It is also being applied in the manufacture of agrichemicals such as pesticides, insecticides and herbicides; but its usage has been declining because of adverse effects on the environment.Due to its odorless and colorless character, and its capacity to become transferred easily, arsenic intake can occur accidentally by drinking allegedly “clean” water. The World Health Organization estimated that approximately 57 million people worldwide are drinking arseni..

In the D. J. Caruso film Eagle Eye (2008), a super-computer equipped with artificial intelligence controls the society by monitoring everything with CCTVs located all over the world. A recent development suggests that the movie may possibly become a reality; a surveillance camera that can judge a situation by itself and prevent terrorism or theft has been invented.A research team led by Professor Daejin Kim of the Department of Computer Science and Technology has developed a technology which automatically detects unattended items as well as burglaries in public places such as subway stations a..

Amicrofluidic chip that can diagnose the warning signs of stroke (or cerebrovascular accidents) with only one percent of one drop of blood or medical devices that may be able to treat something as tiny as blood cells were previously just subjects for science fiction. But a recent study done by a POSTECH-Michigan University (USA) research team broke open the possibility to turn such ideas into reality. The study was selected as the Featured Paper on the May 17th edition of Nature Nanotechnology Online, a respected journal in the field of nanoscience. Dr. Sanghyun Lee, postdoctoral researcher at..

The term ‘biomass’ may seem unfamiliar at first glance, but it is closely connected to the energy sources we use in daily life. In simple terms, it refers to an organic matter that contains renewable energy. When solar energy is absorbed by any plant, photosynthesis stores the energy in chemical form, and biomass can be extracted from the plant.One way of using this biomass is burning it to obtain heat, which can in turn be used to generate electricity, but it can also be converted to practical forms of energy, such as transportation fuels like ethanol and biodiesel or methane gas...

Anisotropic Fatigue Behavior of Magnesium Alloys InvestigatedENVIRONMENTAL protection has surfaced as a major problem that the world needs to solve, and there is no doubt that car pollution takes up a large portion of it. Therefore, the need for eco-friendly cars or ‘Green cars’ with lower emissions and more fuel efficiency is has increased, which explains why the recent work on the related subject conducted by POSTECH and the Korea Research Institute of Standards Science (KRISS) is gaining significance. It has been reported that Professor Chong Soo Lee and Sung Hyuk Park, a Ph.D. ..

The Core Technology for Ultrafast Silicon Device THE core technology that enables the realization of the fastest, nearly massless electrons has been successfully devised by a research team led by Professor Han Woong Yeom, Director of the Center for Atomic Wires and Layers at POSTECH. This achievement may lead to a breakthrough in the development of a truly new technology for semi-conductor devices. Professor Yeom’s team successfully developed a core technology that will enhance the speed of a silicon device by several ten-folds through utilizing the interface, which is the boundary betwe..

A Newly Discovered Mechanism May Lead to Climate RegulationAteam of environmentalphotochemists led by Professor Wonyong Choi of POSTECH has succeeded in explaining how natural ice in Polar Regions can provide the ocean with bioavailable iron content, which ultimately contributes to the prevention of global warming. This achievement in research has gained substantial attention from the international community as it was introduced in several well-known publications in the field of science and technology such as the May 6th issue of Environmental Science & Technology, and the May 17th issue o..

Professor Youngsook Lee (Division of Integrative Biology and Biotechnology) and her team have found a transporter carrying abscisic acid (ABA), a stress hormone, synthesized in plants undergoing stresses like extreme climate or salinity. Their results integrate ABA dependent signaling and transport processes, and it is expected to open a new venture for the engineering of drought-tolerant plants.They have succeeded to find the existence of transporter ABCG40 that can transport ABA, a hormone known to be produced in responses to environmental stress such as extreme temperatures, high salinity, ..

Professor Jaesung Park (Department of Mechanical Engineering) and Korea- America co-research team including medical school of Harvard University have succeeded in observing the mutual interaction between the layers of primary hepatocyte (liver) cells and non-parenchymal (functional) cells created by the stencil created by the microfabrication techniques.To treat damaged or diseased liver tissue, hepatic tissue engineering has been studied as a new therapeutic approach. The reconstruction of functional hepatic tissue mainly depends on the ability to control factors that influence the cell envir..

Professor Hyung Joon Cha (Department of Chemical Engineering) and his team have succeeded in developing a highly condensed liquid bio-adhesive material based on the mussel adhesive proteins (MAPs) by complex coacervation, which shows superior adhesive properties. Recently, MAPs found in byssus of mussel, have come to be recognized as useful biomaterials for direct use as bio-adhesives in medical applications and in the engineering of new marine-inspired adhesive materials. As purified natural MAPs are difficult to obtain, it has not been possible to experimentally validate the complex coacerva..