Korean scientists at KAIST and Hannam University (Daejon) have developed a new and simple method for performing 3-D modeling at the cellular level. Shown above is a microscopic knock-off of Rodin’s sculpture “The Thinker” done just about twice the size of a red blood cell at 20 millionths of a meter high. What this demonstrates is there is some really useful science being perfected in Korea that can be used to create microscopic sensors and devices, which in turn may drive many benefits to Korea and the world at large. Here is the original link to the published article in Applied Physics Letters (subscription required for the full article). Despite the innovative procedure described above, it will be sometime before microscopic copies of Rodin sculptures are sold in Itaewon.
As a small side note about KAIST or Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, KAIST is one of the best places in Korea for advancing research in the sciences and some of the brilliant and capable people that work there are even sometimes Chaebol rejects since, in that in the world of the Chaebol, senior employees that are not promoted within the conglomerate are shed like waste product, regardless of their intrinsic worth and experience. This means that a good research scientist at some place like LG might find themselves out of work, due to the way Chaebol function, but can often find a place at KAIST.
9 Comments
That’s cool. I feel sorry for the average company worker here in Korea. In many cases, valuable employees are treated like shit no matter how hard working and loyal they are to the company.
Yes, that’s something you find in every culture.
Sure that’s cool. But don’t get too excited. Korea’s renowned for its photoshop abilities.
If it’s true, then it’s quite exciting as new technology, but has this made it into Nature magazine and the like?
Man, you guys are hard!
I would only worry about Photoshop tricks if a leader of this project came forward with a request for money and media coverage. I don’t think these guys are dan-ta-ra.
That’s cool. I feel sorry for the average company worker here in Korea. In many cases, valuable employees are treated like shit no matter how hard working and loyal they are to the company.
The classic example of this is that of one Shuji Nakamura. During the 90s, this unknown researcher employed by Nichia Chemical Company in Japan was experimenting with compound semiconductor materials. His superiors didn’t know what the hell he was doing. Requests for funding and procurement of equipment by Nakamura fell mostly on deaf ears. So he built his own equipment and funded his experiments partly out of his own pocket.
Some years later, Nakamura announced that he had successfully produced the world’s first blue laser diode. Somehow, he had managed to beat out bigger, well-funded research labs such as Corning who were attempting to do the same thing. The development of the blue laser was significant because the blue laser has a thinner wavelength than red lasers and therefore has a finer resolution with tremendous implications for any application that uses a laser, such as dvd players.
Nichia Chemical Company awarded him a bonus of a grand total of $500 and tried to retain ownership of the patent. Nakamura eventually decided to leave his company and pursue research in academia. He is now a professor at UC Santa Barbara.
Yes, Nakamura is a good example of how large companies can screw their employees around and that is a consideration that many smart people have to deal with, especially when working for people who are not as smart as they are but are very sly and sneaky.
The Chaebol pyramid system of management structure has few fans however, simply because it is not flexible enough to deal with people like Nakamura and others (researchers) whose work is not glamorous enough to merit the loving look of ones superiors. Because of such, Korea is fortunate to have a KAIST on hand to help retain their experience pool.
If this was photoshoped, they should have done a Racequeen, would have attracted more attention from 1/2 the population.
Nice, but a little late. Japan has already done this back in 2001 and half the size. AND, if you want to get really tiny, try a nano car.
Props to KAIST and Hannam U. Now if we can just get them to research fan death, then we might have a first!