Korean firms to showcase smarter, wearable tech

Major Korean smartphone makers and telecommunications companies, including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, SK Telecom and KT, are all set to show off their latest technology at the Mobile World Congress 2014.The world’s largest mobile trade show will begin on Monday (local time) in Barcelona, Spain, for a four-day run. Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest mobile manufacturer, is expected to unveil its long-awaited flagship smartphone Galaxy S5, along with wearable products including the

Feb. 23, 2014

Facebook uses Korea as test bed

Who says Facebook Korea is on the verge of demise?Those who obviously have no access to the social networking service grapevine.“Korea is a unique market where over 90 percent of users access Facebook through smartphones,” said Benjamin Joe, head of Facebook Korea, in an interview with The Korea Herald. Noting that Facebook Korea has seen a threefold increase in personnel in the last two years, Joe stressed that further expansion will come down the road. His comments were aimed at dispelling rum

Feb. 23, 2014

[Weekender] Biomimicry: Seeking answers from nature

The scene of a blind man walking along a street using a white cane may be a familiar sight, but these days his cane might have a secret edge ― an advantage made possible by a process that took place over tens of millions of years. The cane, developed by a U.K.-based company, is fitted with ultrasound emitters and detectors that mimic the echolocation ability of bats. The device uses ultrasound waves to detect obstacles ahead and above the user, beyond the cane’s reach, and vibrates to alert the

Feb. 21, 2014

[Weekender] Learning through imitation

Explanations of biomimicry often begin with the Shinkansen bullet train in Japan.The train was successfully rocketing along at record speeds. But there was a hitch: When they exited a tunnel, they created a sonic boom because of air pressure differences.Engineers modeled the front of the train after the beak of a kingfisher, which moves rapidly and smoothly between air and water, massively reducing noise pollution. This is the classic image of biomimicry ― engineers and designers looking to natu

Feb. 21, 2014

[Weekender] Saving our blue planet

Every day, thousands of factories gush smoke into the air and millions of cars gulp gasoline, with billions of people exhausting the limited resources on the solitary blue planet.Traditionally, human society has depended on the consumption of depletable assets, such as oil and coal. Like the mice in the book “Who Moved My Cheese,” people have just kept on using the resources in the false belief that they will somehow last. With side effects of economic growth such as the greenhouse effect, air p

Feb. 21, 2014

[Weekender] The natural look

The Menelaus Blue Morpho is a curious creature. A butterfly of Central and South America, its wings have no pigment, but they shine in a brilliant, iridescent blue. This is because the surface structure of the wings gives them their color, which changes when viewed from different angles. “This natural process, which is called structural color, is caused by diffraction, interference and scattering of light on the surface structure,” said Hwang Kyung-hyun, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Ma

Feb. 21, 2014

[Weekender] Sejong: A city built in nature’s image

Cities and nature are often considered worlds apart. The former is the epitome of man’s desire to conquer the latter, using concrete and steel to build a world unintended by Mother Earth.Nonetheless, Lee Choon-hee ― an expert of urban planning and engineering ― said it is possible to construct cities that harmoniously exist with nature. The prime example, he says, is the recently-created administrative town of Sejong, in central Korea.“There had been many new towns created (by the government), b

Feb. 21, 2014

Scientists develop artificial muscle from fishing line, thread

An international team of researchers, including three from South Korea, have created an artificial muscle that is 100 times more powerful than human ones by using ordinary fishing lines and sewing threads.The new muscles are produced by twisting and coiling high-strength polymer fiber threads made from polyethylene and nylon. They can be applied in a vast number of fields, including robotics and prosthetic limbs, scientists said. The project, led by the NanoTech Institutes at the University of T

Feb. 21, 2014

Feel dizzy? Check inside your ears

Graduate student Choi Yoon-young, 25, suddenly fainted one day after feeling severely dizzy. She was worried she had a serious disease such as anemia or a brain tumor, but it turned out to be a few tiny stones in her ears. About 80 percent of vertigo, or severe dizziness, cases are caused by moving calcium crystals in the ear, doctors say. This is called otolithiasis ― a functional disorder of physical balance and kinesthetic sense, A layer of stones settles in the ears to control physical balan

Feb. 20, 2014

Learning difficulties

Low academic grades do not always mean that your child has learning difficulties. Children with lower intellectual abilities or emotional stability may have low academic grades. Some children may even hare mild mental disorders.Learning disorders, or learning disabilities, are likely in children who follow academic classes well, but cannot differentiate between left and right, or who cannot read numbers or days of the week from back to front.John, who is now an elementary student, could only say

Feb. 20, 2014

Test could predict which teen boys get depression

LONDON (AP) ― A saliva test for teenage boys with mild symptoms of depression could help identify those who will later develop major depression, a new study says.Researchers measured the stress hormone cortisol in teenage boys and found that ones with high levels coupled with mild depression symptoms were up to 14 times more likely to suffer clinical depression later in life than those with low or normal cortisol levels.The test was tried on teenage boys and girls, but found to be most effective

Feb. 20, 2014

Samsung introduces world’s first curved UHD TV

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest television maker, introduced the world’s first curved ultrahigh-definition TV in Seoul on Thursday.The new TV, which is curved at a radius of 4.2 meters, features clearer resolution and higher color saturation, and a panoramic view that offers consumers the feel of an “IMAX” experience. It hopes not only to maintain its global TV leadership with its UHD TVs, but also seeks to widen the technology and market gap with fast follower China, and shorten it wit

Feb. 20, 2014