Lord Rayleigh wrote about the two-dimensional whispering gallery mode (WGM) in 1910 after a visit to the dome of St. Paul’s cathedral in London. The whispering cave mode (WCM) is a threedimensional (3D) effect?a toroid with circular helix symmetry?which recent studies have shown can be used to create photonic-quantum-ring (PQR) lasers that emit in the blue-violet part of the spectrum. A research team at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH, Pohang, Korea) first created 3D WCM lasers that emit in the infrared and red part of the spectrum. To achieve this, professor O&rsquo..

Professor Kilwon Cho and Doctor Ho Sun Lim of the Department of Chemical Engineering discovered the smart surface that can switch reversibly from extreme water-hating (superhydrophobic) to dramatic water-loving (superhydrophilic) via exposure to ultraviolet or visible light (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2006, 128, 14458). Recently, this smart surface was introduced with the subject, “Self-Cleaning Materials: Lotus Leaf-Inspired Nanotechnology” in a hot issue of materials science field in Scientific American. The lotus grows in muddy water, but its leaves, when they emerge, are seemingly neve..

Nowadays the term of ‘nano’, which means 10-9 as the SI prefix, is commonly mentioned in the media. Usually, a human hair is taken as a means for lifelike recognition of 1 nanometer. One nanometer is 1/100,000 of a hair, which is too small to observe through optical microscope. When we consider that 1 nm is 3 or 4 atomic scale at the most, similar to DNA with the size of 2 nm, its very small size is true to nature for us. Hence, to control an individual atom and to reveal the mystery of the DNA of human body, ‘nanotechnology’ has been attracting great attention as one o..

Many clinically important drugs are natural products produced by bacteria and fungi. In particular, polyketide antibiotics have been found to be an extremely rich source of biologically active compounds with a broad range of pharmaceutical activities. Aromatic nitro groups are relatively rare functional groups in natural products including polyketide antibiotics but are found in diverse types of important antibiotics, such as chloramphenicol, pyrrolnitrin, aureothin, azomycin, and rufomycin. Surprisingly, the biosynthesis of aromatic nitro groups is poorly understood. To date, only two enzymes..

The invention of the scanning tunnel microscope (STM) opened the door to nanoworld, enabling humankind to actually touch and feel the individual atoms at the surface of a material. It has inspired a series of inventions such as the atomic force microscope (AFM), the lateral force microscope (LFM), the magnetic force microscope (MFM), etc. Recently, the scanning probe microscope (SPM), which encompasses all these inventions, has evolved into the millipede technology which has a potential to make competing data storage technologies obsolete. A common denominator of these exciting developments is..

A research achievement first published in the world’s foremost chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie by a prominent Korean chemist and his coworkers has gained spotlight with additional coverage in Nature Nanotechnology, Chemistry World and other world’s leading chemistry and medical related journals.Prof. Kimoon Kim and his team at the Dept. of Chemistry have developed a novel approach to the production of polymeric nanocapsules, which has revolutionized our understanding of manufacturing nanocapsules. Furthermore, the research has generated much interest not only from chemists in t..

As technology continues to get smaller, and as memory needs become more demanding, the microelectronics industry requires devices that are more cost-efficient and lightweight. And, while organic memory materials have shown some promise on improvement in performance and reductions in cost, they still lack some of the essential qualities, such as durable performance even in a harsh condition, needed for application in a wide variety of fields. So-called Non-Volatile Memories (NVM) from thermally and dimensionally stable polymer materials could provide a solution.The devices, developed by Profess..

Climate change caused by increasing atmospheric CO2 is a major environmental problem of the 21st century. There has been much discussion about how to reduce CO2 output and prevent global warming. In this respect, plants are an important part of the overall picture as they are primary CO2 consumers and are directly challenged by increasing CO2 levels. Moreover, plants vary in their responses to elevated CO2. Plants that adapt better to this change are expected to out-compete their neighbors, which would cause instability in present ecosystems and unpredictable changes in weather and climate.In ..

POSTECH, joining hands with Dong-A University and Seoul Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., hastens development of a novel sepsis medication materialized with domestic technology.POSTECH team of Professor Sung Ho Ryu and Professor Yoon-Keun Kim (Department of Life Science), in a joint research with Professor Yoe-Sik Bae of Dong-A University, supported by POSCO and Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, has developed peptides that effectively prevent progression of sepsis.In animal experiments, the peptide ligands newly developed for formyl peptide receptor like-1 (FPRL1) in septic mice resulte..