* Link : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/10/117_52814.htmlPohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has the lowest dropout rate among 188 universities. According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Thursday, POSTECH had 17 students give up their studies at the university last year, out of a total of 1,711 ― 1 percent of the total student body. The average dropout rate among institutes of higher education, including 2-year and 3-year colleges, stood at 5 percent. Among those who left their original schools, 44 percent voluntarily withdrew, 33 per..

Korean scientists have identified the structure of a protein linked to epilepsy and other brain function abnormalities, which they say could present new opportunities in treatment and drug development. In a study published by peer-review European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Journal, a team of researchers led Kim Kyung-jin of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) presented the crystal structure of the succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) protein. SSADH deficiency has been associated with epilepsy and other neurological conditions, and understanding the structure..

Mad cow disease made headlines in the early 2000s when 4.4 million cattle in the United Kingdom alone were killed as a precaution against it. Now, there may be a way to not only trace the disease in its incubation period but also medically treat it. Professor Daehee Hwang (School of Interdisciplinary Bioscience and Bioengineering) and his group, in collaboration with the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), the McLaughlin Research Institute, the University of California, San Francisco, the Allen Brain Institute, and the European Bioinformatics Institute, have spotted a set of genes that go hay..

Professor Seung-Hoon Jhi and Ph.D. Candidate Seon-Myeong Choi, both of the Department of Physics, in their study of metal doped graphene nanoribbons, discovered that the adsorbed metal atoms form atomic chains which can be used as reagents to identify the edge atomic structures of the graphene nanoribbons and also as gate-driven spin valves to control the spin current in graphene nanoribbons. Graphene, the basic structural element of all graphitic materials including graphite, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes, is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeyco..

Ultrahigh density arrays of conducting polymer nanorods have been fabricated through a joint research project by Professors Jin Kon Kim and Su-Moon Park of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Dr. Jae-Woong Yu of Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), and Professor Thomas P. Russell of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, U.S.A., as reported in Nano Letters, vol. 8, 2315-2320 (2008). Nanoporous templates, for instance, track-etched polymer membrane and anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane, have been widely used to prepare conducting polymer nanotubes, nano..

TGFβ ligands belonging to the Activin/Nodal family, induces mesoderm and endoderm, specifies the embryonic axes, promotes gastrulation movements, maintains pluripotency of embryonic stem cells, and determines left-right asymmetry in vertebrates. Activin/Nodal ligands signal through type I and type II transmembrane serine/threonine kinase receptors. Ligand binding induces the formation of heteromeric receptor complexes in which type II receptors phosphorylate and activate type I receptors. The activated type I receptors transduce the signal inside the cell through the phosphorylation of th..

A multi-platform supporting mobile applications software development environment technology has been developed. More than 30% of current development effort is expected to be saved through the new environment. Professor Kyo-Chul Kang (Department of Computer Science and Engineering) and his research team have joined efforts with Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in the Mobile Platform based Application Development (MoPAD) project which launched in March 2007 with the support of Institute for Information Technology Advancement. The first report of the research outcomes ..

Spin-valve devices are a key component of a magnetoresistive random access memory. Mr. Woo Youn Kim and Professor Kwang Soo Kim of Department of Chemistry of POSTECH predicted supermagnetoresistance in a graphene nanoribbon device, the article of which has appeared in Nature Nanotech (3, 408-412, 2008). The reported graphene nanoribbon spin-valve device shows extremely large magnetoresistance (ten thousand times larger than that of conventional devices), which promises high speed access, and good sensitivity. The striking enhancement originates from the peculiar symmetry of band structures of ..

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 ..

As the eventful year of 2008 comes to a close and the New Year of 2009 begins, I wish all of you a New Year full of happiness and love.2009 is the Year of the Ox. There is an old saying that goes, “Ox pace takes you a thousand miles,” which means slow and steady steps take you much farther. This year’s start is cloudier and gloomier than ever. The recent global economic crisis has been even more brutal than the foreign exchange crisis we experienced a decade ago. At a time of such hardship, we should learn from the wisdom of the ox, not panicking or getting nervous, but being..