Confusion grows over car mileage

Hyundai Motor Group’s recent mileage overstatement scandal in North America now raises eyebrows of Korean customers like Lee Hae-mi, a Seoul resident who owns a 2011 Kia Soul. Among 13 Hyundai and Kia brand car models forced to reduce their mileage by one to two miles per gallon on average, the largest adjustment was six miles per gallon for the Soul. While the Soul’s fuel economy in the United States was lowered from 27 miles per gallon to 21, or from 11.5 kilometers per liter to 8.9, its offic

IndustryNov. 14, 2012

‘Starcraft II’ expansion ‘Heart of the Swarm,’ to be released next year

“Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm,” the first expansion pack of “Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty,” will be released in March next year, game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment said Tuesday. “Heart of the Swarm” features new units, including Terran Hellbats, Zerg Swarm Hosts and Protoss Tempests, along with new maps. The expansion set has about 20 campaign missions, and provides an enhanced battle net service, Blizzard said at a “Starcraft” community party held in Seoul.“With ‘Heart of

TechnologyNov. 14, 2012

New generation arrives for mobile messengers

The soaring popularity of mobile messengers is nothing new in Korea, but the competition is expected to get fiercer among the top industrial players like Kakao Talk and NHN’s Line. In total subscribers, NHN, operator of No. 1 online portal Naver, has secured about 74 million users as of Tuesday with its mobile messenger Line, closely followed by Kakao Talk which has a user base of 66 million as of early this month.Line, which opened service in June last year, is a mobile messenger that has gaine

TechnologyNov. 14, 2012

Ex-Shinhan chief stricken by Alzheimer’s disease

Former Shinhan Financial Group chairman Ra Eung-chan is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, it was learned on Wednesday.His alleged illness became known as he refused to be present at court as witness for the group’s embezzlement case due to the disease. Ra submitted a notice on Monday that he will not be attending court because he is receiving treatment for the disease, according to Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday. Ra is known to have claimed that he “cannot remember” due to the disea

IndustryNov. 14, 2012

Men and women select different ideal heights

The first research on men and women’s different natural selection was done in Sweden. Short women and men of average height are more successful at reproduction, according to the study.Gert Stulp, with colleagues from Groningen, Amsterdam and Cambridge University, studied the number of children born to brothers and sisters in a large-scale American database containing data on thousands of residents of Wisconsin born in 1937 or 1938. “It turned out that by taking the height of just one person, we

TechnologyNov. 14, 2012

'Love hormone' keeps men in relationship away from other women: study

A new study suggests that men are prompted by a hormone which keeps them distant from other attractive women.Rene Hurlemann, a researcher at the University of Bonn in Germany, said in a statement that “oxytocin,” a hormone which is known to contribute to pair-bonding, encourages men to expand their personal emotional barrier when attractive women are around.Hurlemann added that the barrier is activated only when those men are in relationships. Single men do not show such response even when they

TechnologyNov. 14, 2012

Artificial lens mimics the human eye

U.S. researchers say they've created an artificial lens that could lead to implantable lenses to replace damaged or diseased human eye lenses.Nearly identical to the natural lens of the human eye, the technology behind the artificial lens is called "GRIN" or gradient refractive index optics.The lens is made up of thousands of nanoscale polymer layers that bend, or refract, light by varying degrees as it passes through it."The human eye is a GRIN lens," Michael Ponting, a polymer scientist at Cas

TechnologyNov. 14, 2012

Sky-gazers in awe of total eclipse

Sky-gazers in northern Australia donned protective glasses as the clouds parted Wednesday to allow them to witness one of nature‘s greatest phenomena -- a total eclipse of the sun.All eyes and cameras turned to the heavens over tropical north Queensland as the moon began moving between the Earth and the sun, like a small bite which gradually increases in size.Cloud cover threatened to spoil the party and huge cheers erupted when they parted to give tens of thousands of eclipse hunters a perfect

TechnologyNov. 14, 2012

Climate change said threat to world coffee

 Arabica beans, responsible for 70 percent of the world‘s coffee market, could face extinction due to climate change, researchers at Britain’s Kew Gardens say.Rising tides and warming temperatures worldwide could render 99.7 percent of popular current bean-growing regions unsuitable for raising coffee, possibly causing the world‘s predominant coffee crop to be extinct by 2080, the researchers said.Wild Arabica grows naturally in the mountains of Ethiopia and South Sudan, and while most commercia

Nov. 14, 2012

U.S. scientist claims humans’ intelligence declining

Human intelligence has been on the downtrend for thousands of years because of an accumulated genetic mutation harmful to “intelligence” genes, a U.S. geneticist has claimed.According to a study by Professor Gerald Crabtree, head of a genetics laboratory at Stanford University, intellectual powers of humankind peaked in times of hunter-gatherers, and started deteriorating since the introduction of agriculture.Crabtree argues that since the pressure of survival has lessened, natural selection on

TechnologyNov. 14, 2012

Korea’s economy to grow 3.2% next year

The nation’s major economic think tanks and brokerages expect the Korean economy to grow an average of 3.2 percent next year.The forecast by 15 securities companies and think tanks is lower than a growth outlook of 3.6 percent offered by the International Monetary Fund in October.The Finance Ministry projected Korea’s economy to grow at 4 percent, while major foreign investment banks on average expected a 3.1 percent growth rate.Analysts said the think tanks estimated the bearish outlook because

Nov. 13, 2012

Protectionism defines battle between Samsung, Apple

“Designed for humans.” That’s Samsung tagline for the Galaxy S3, and it’s sure to include all humans, even the Americans, despite Samsung being at legal loggerheads with Apple Inc., one of the most quintessentially American companies around. As Koreans, it’s hard not to be conscious of the nationality of the two companies, and the finale ― particularly how the appeal in the U.S. turns out ― will prove just how significant a part nationality played in this cross-border legal drama that’s just tak

IndustryNov. 13, 2012