Science in Korea — What Is Being Built Here

What is any of this for? Most of us asked that once, at school. This series looks for the answer inside Korea: what is actually being built right now, what science it stands on, and what paths lead to doing that work. The first half is written for a middle-schooler; the second half goes deeper.

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Leg 1 · Fusion — Can We Build a Sun on the Ground?

Leg 2 · The Heavy Ion Accelerator — Making Nuclei That Do Not Exist

Leg 3 · CDMA — How Everyone Can Speak at Once Without Mixing

Leg 4 · Orbit — A Rocket Does Not Go Up, It Goes Sideways

Leg 5 · Nuri — What Exactly Did We Get Over?

Leg 6 · Standards — Why Is a Kilogram a Kilogram?

Leg 7 · The Reactor — Getting Heat by Splitting

Leg 8 · New Medicines — What It Takes for One Pill to Exist

Leg 9 · Biologics — If You Cannot Build It, Get Something to Build It

Leg 10 · Robots — Winning at Chess but Unable to Pick Up a Cup

Leg 11 · Solar Cells and Hydrogen — Energy Is Never Made

Leg 12 · Reading the Ground — Why Earthquakes Cannot Be Forecast

Leg 13 · To Look at a Star Is to Look at the Past

Leg 14 · Supercomputers — Experimenting on What Cannot Be Experimented On

Leg 15 · The Electron Microscope — How to See What the Eye Cannot

381665Robert Hooke · The cell

Leg 16 · Nano — Why Making It Small Makes It Different

Leg 17 · Cryptography — Why the Lock Is Handed to Everyone

411994Peter Shor / The quantum algorithm

Leg 18 · Basic Research — Why Do What Has No Use?

421900David Hilbert · The twenty-three problems

Leg 19 · Antarctica — Old Air Is Trapped in the Ice

Leg 20 · The Synchrotron — How a Nuisance Became Treasure

Leg 21 · Forensic Science — Every Touch Leaves Something

471865Mendel

Leg 22 · Ships — Why Steel Floats and Why There Is a Bulb Under the Bow

Leg 23 · Weather — Why Tomorrow Can Be Told and Next Week Cannot

Updated 2026-09-12