The core of autonomous vehicles lies in sensors that analyze surrounding road conditions. A research team led by Professor Dae Sung Chung (CE) and graduate student Sangjun Lee (CE) has produced sensors that are 100 times cheaper than existing ones, contributing to the future mass adoption of autonomous vehicles. The team has developed an organic photodiode (OPD) sensor that analyzes shortwave infrared rays by polaron engineering. Polarons are quasiparticles that form in solid-state materials due to the coupling of excess electrons. The study was published in the journal Advanced Materials. The

In 2023, the Korean Medical Association recommended that immunocompromised people be vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19 simultaneously ahead of the winter season. The news that both arms should be injected was like a bolt from the blue for children. However, a substance capable of multitasking, one that simultaneously prevents and treats the flu as well as COVID-19, has recently been announced, drawing attention from the public. The research team led by Professor Seung-Woo Lee (LIFE), Subin Park and Yujin L. Jeong of Integrated Life Sciences Course, and Dr. Donghoon Choi of NeoImmuneTech

Recently, controversy arose over a video posted on a Korean YouTube channel. The content of the video was about a woman who cloned her dog by replicating its somatic cells. When the video was uploaded, the Korean Animal Welfare Association accused the dog cloning company, that had cloned her dogs, of violating the Animal Protection Act. Animal cloning remains technically legal because there is no law prohibiting it. Still, the act of producing and selling companion animals without a permit is liable, including activities such as forcing them to get pregnant during the cloning process and admin

While scrolling down Shorts, one commonly sees videos made with generative artificial intelligence. The most common example of GenAI used in the content-creation process is text-to-speech (TTS) GenAI, where you can narrate your content by simply typing the sentences you want to narrate. With the help of TTS, you can now make a clean and sharp narration without buying expensive microphones. Another example of GenAI frequently used in content creation is an AI voice generator, used for making covers of an artist’s songs with another artist’s voice. Even video editing is done by GenAI, easily sho

POSTECH researchers have developed a cost-effective and highly efficient catalyst for water electrolysis, as reported in Advanced Materials. This breakthrough addresses longstanding challenges in the eco-friendly production of hydrogen fuel, marked by low efficiency and high costs. The use of precious metals like platinum in water electrolysis has raised concerns about excessive production costs, coupled with issues in managing hydrogen bubbles with conventional thin-film catalysts. The research team, led by Professor Jong Kyu Kim (MSE) and Jaerim Kim (MSE), in collaboration with Prof. Yong-Ta

The “plumber’s nightmare” structure, which appears to trap all exits inward, has been a challenge for implementation due to its complexity. However, a recent breakthrough at POSTECH has turned this seemingly impossible concept into reality. Published in Science, the study presents the successful realization of complex nanostructures using block copolymers (BCPs). BCPs, composed of blocks of different polymers, exhibit the unique ability to self-assemble into a variety of nanostructures, each endowed with a diverse range of properties. Despite active research focused on the optical and mechanic

Journalism ethics have met their demise in Korea. Media outlets in the country regurgitate the same articles like mindless parrots, present lackluster reports as news, and fabricate misleading, sensational headlines. The once-respected pillars of truthful reporting seem to have crumbled, leaving behind a landscape of compromised integrity. Amid this collapse of journalism and declining public trust, journalists have the responsibility to restore the credit and honor of the media. Reporters and the press should stop using misleading, provocative headlines. Most Koreans consume news using web po

Taiwan’s presidential election attracted global attention as a proxy conflict between Washington and Beijing. The proxy war concluded with Lai Ching-te from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) winning the 2024 presidential election. The world is responding to a surprise that Lai, the pro-American, pro-independence Taiwanese politician, was elected despite warnings from China – which called Taiwan’s 2024 election a choice between peace and war – not to vote for Lai. “Taiwan is China’s Taiwan,” Chen Binhua, the spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, stated the One Ch

The resultant frictional electricity, which is spontaneously generated without external power, has stimulated active research across diverse fields. However, a prominent challenge lies in the limited sustainability of the charged electricity in sensors designed to detect static electricity. A collaborative research team from POSTECH, comprised of Professor Jin Kon Kim (CE), Dr. Junho Jang, Prof. Unyong Jeong (MSE), and Ph.D. candidate Woosung Cho, has recently published groundbreaking research in the international energy journal, Nano Energy. Their study focuses on overcoming the drawbacks of

One of the key elements in the industrial sector is NH3, ammonia. For its high hydrogen content and energy density, ammonia serves as a carrier for storing and transporting hydrogen. Researchers have increased the efficiency of ammonia production by using sulfur (S). The current method for producing ammonia is the Haber-Bosch process, which, however, requires high temperatures (400-500 °C) and high pressure (200-300 atm). Due to these conditions, the process consumes a significant amount of energy. Which leads to a significant environmental burden. Recently, the use of lithium (Li) in the Nitr

During the holiday seasons every year, streets are filled with holiday decorations from Christmas trees to sparkling ornaments. People enjoy the holiday atmosphere, strolling the decorated streets with their loved ones. In times like these, simply passing through the street that you walk on every day becomes a holiday activity. Stores, cafés, and even the local dentist are filled with Christmas carols, Christmas trees, and colorful decorations. Department stores, in particular, take this holiday spirit to the next level. An LED media wall façade surrounding the whole department store building

On Friday, Nov. 17, the board of OpenAI fired the AI superstar Sam Altman as the CEO of the company. The whole world was stunned by the unexpected news including, but not only, one of the company’s major investors Microsoft whose stock price took a nose dive in the immediate aftermath. On the following Tuesday, less than a week after his removal, the board decided to reinstate Altman as the CEO. There is still no clear answer or explanation from the company as to why he was fired. Only rumors and speculations roam. OpenAI has a peculiar structure. It started out as a non-profit organization wi

Stencil is an art technique that illustrates an image by passing ink over a plate with holes. The semiconductor industry also has a similar technique. Stencil lithography is a method to pattern on a substrate by depositing metals through a shadow mask. The technology is normally used to make nano-sized devices or circuits; however, it is difficult to apply on curved surfaces. The research team of Professor Seok Kim (ME), Prof. Dae Sung Chung (CE), and Ph.D. candidate Sangyeop Lee invented the shadow mask for stencil lithography that can be applied on flat and curved surfaces and can be attache

In Aug. 2020, heavy rainfall and a substantial water release in the Seomjin River Dam caused a tremendous flood, causing 160 billion KRW in damage. One of the primary issues that worsened the damage was the failure in the dam operation, as the operators did not discharge enough water before the heavy rainfall. Could this have been averted if we knew in advance and took measures? Research led by Professor Jonghun Kam (DESE) and Eunmi Lee (integrative MSE/PhD program in DESE) in the Hydro-Climatology Research (HCR) group, explored the efficient operation of dams using deep learning and verified

In the intricate tapestry of global economies, the United States and Japan stand as economic behemoths, each exhibiting consumer patterns that defy conventional economic views. The juxtaposition of their consumer patterns reminds us that the dynamics of the marketplace are influenced by a myriad of cultural, economic, and societal factors and cannot be explained by simple textbook teachings. The United States and Japan are showing opposite monetary policies and consumer behaviors. The central bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve System (Fed), has raised interest rates to 5.5%, the hi

What does SAG-AFTRA mean? As the abbreviation of Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, it represents the employees who produce, report, write, host, or announce news for web content, videos, and podcasts. Covering approximately 160,000 media professionals worldwide, it deals with the issue of performers who did not quite earn enough. Since 2007, the first strike was launched by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and 11,500 writers from the union participated. The existing Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) between the American Association of Producers (AMPTP), a

The term “Sherpa” commonly denotes the guides who assist climbers on Mount Everest. Similarly, a research team led by Professor Yong-Tae Kim (MSE) and Ph.D. Candidate Kyu-Su Kim published a paper addressing the unsolved challenge of developing electrocatalysts for water electrolysis, which graced the cover of the academic journal, ACS Catalysis. Water electrolysis is an eco-friendly technique for extracting hydrogen from water. Nevertheless, the process is economically impractical due to the requirement of precious metal catalysts. Thus, in academia, extensive efforts are underway to overcome

With many controversies regarding abortion and scientific experiments on zygotes, whether a zygote is a human being has become an important question. Recently Professor Chunghyoung Lee (HSS) published a paper tackling this question in The Philosophical Review, and it has been selected as one of the “10 Best Philosophy Papers of 2022”. Prof. Lee argues against conceptionism, the view that a human being begins to exist at conception in the form of a zygote, by applying philosophical theories to results of recent biological research. Prof. Lee starts his thesis with arguments from twinning. Conce

The Israel-Palestine conflict is a long-standing and deeply entrenched dispute that has spanned over a century. It is rooted in historical, religious, territorial, and political complexities, and it continues to impact the lives of millions in the Middle East. In the early morning of Oct.7, Hamas, the armed group that rules the Palestinian Gaza Strip, fired thousands of rockets into southern and central Israel. Israel then defined this surprise attack as war and began to retaliate. This armed conflict is the largest since the ‘11-day war’ between Israel and Hamas in May 2021, which took place

A superconductor is a material that exhibits superconductivity under critical temperature, where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic fields expel from the material. Tremendous energy savings by superconductor are said to have the potential to address global energy challenges and enhance computing performances in addition to other possibilities. Room-temperature superconductors under ambient pressure may take the world to a new level. Numerous scientists have researched superconductors, but room-temperature superconductors remained elusive until July when the team published preprints de