Do any of our readers speak Korean?? If so, we’d love some help.
Some background…being utterly self-obsessed, we’ve set up Google News alerts that let us know whenever a news website (or blog) publishes a story that mentions ‘Nature Chemistry’. It’s nice to see when our articles get picked up elsewhere, and very useful to get feedback of any kind – it’s less interesting seeing how many cosmetic products are marketed using the awful phrase “nature’s chemistry”! [at least 2 or 3 a week, since you asked]
Anyway, this week we’ve found 3 or 4 webpages, in Korean, that mention Nature Chemistry. One mentions JACS as well.
So what? Well, the unusual thing is that the articles really don’t look like normal science news articles at all! They look a lot more like a celebrity news story, complete with a professional photo of a young chap posing with/without guitar case – check ’em out.
Google Translate doesn’t help – apart from providing a kind of Lear-esque nonsense poetry all of its own – but maybe you can! Is one of our – or JACS’ – authors famous in Korea? Am I missing the point entirely?
Neil
Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)
I just clicked on your link 4 which states that a singer known (not to me, though) as 루시드폴 (Lucid Fall) has just published the article in question (under his real name 조윤석 – Yun Suk Jo). So he is the first author.
Aha! And we then covered that JACS paper in a Research Highlight. A quick Google reveals the following page from the Korean Times (in English) that explains a little bit more.
Mystery solved – many thanks Daniel!
I wonder how many other pop stars out there are secretly doing PhDs…
I know several who do and think it wouldn’t be difficult to find more if you are interested.
@Neil, You can use translate.google.com for things like this.
Mitch
@Mitch, here’s a sample of the Lear-esque nonsense that Google Translate gives (1st sentence of the first link):
Engineering Dr Lucid from the artist’s sensibility, Paul (real name Bubbles) this past September, JACS, including whether, where two global chemical journal papers published this year that the world’s leading scientific journal Nature (Nature) in the new Department of Chemistry changganhan journal Nature Chemistry (Nature Chemistry) in his paper cover Choi attention has been focused.
See why I was a little confused?!
“real name Bubbles”? And I thought being “Materials Girl” was a little hokey (I suppose as long as no one thinks I’m trying to reflect Madonna)…
@Neil, I just realized that I have used translation software for so long that the quote you provided makes clear and perfect sense to me. ::shudders::
Am I too late to join this party?
I’ve studied Korean pretty intensely for the past 3 years and I’ve been waiting all along for an opportunity such as this to arrive. Here is my translation of the accompanying article.
A quick caveat: I am not Korean, nor am I a professional translator so I don’t think I got this 100%. But I do think I captured the essence of the article. All mistakes are mine and mine alone.
The World’s Best Science Journal, Nature, Takes Notice of Lucid Fall’s Thesis,
This past September ballad singer Lucid Fall (born Cho Yoon-seok), a doctor of engineering, has had his thesis published in two global journals, including JACS. Now Nature Chemistry, a new division of the world’s best science journal, Nature, has taken notice of Lucid Fall’s thesis.
This past October 2nd, in its online publication “Research Highlights” Nature Chemistry introduced Lucid Fall’s thesis, and on November 23rd, in the 9th volume of 2009, will formally introduce it.
Out of tens of thousands of theses every month, Nature Chemistry, selects two or three to feature in “Research Highlights.” The fact that Lucid Falls’ thesis is getting so much attention reflects how important the thesis is in the world of chemistry.
Nature became famous domestically several years ago because of Dr. Hwang Wu-seok. But in the scientific community Nature is not only famous for a high citation rate, but also because it has a reputation for the being difficult to get published in. Additionally, the fact that this journal is paying attention to him means that Lucid Fall could have a promising future as a researcher.
In his thesis, “’Micelles for Delivery of Nitric Oxide’ he develops a method for how nitric oxide, —a material that could be used as a treatment but the delivery technology had been unavailable—could be used in the form of nano particles to pass through the membranes of cells and could be used to treat heart disease and erectile dysfunction. He has received a best thesis award from the Swiss Chemical Society and is even applying for a patent in the United States.
Owing to these continuous honors, Lucid Fall is receiving many “love calls” from scholars and industry around the world. However, on December 10th he is scheduled to perform in Les Miserable and on December 19th, he will begin a national tour. Because of these preparations, he has a busy schedule.
@Joe Brilliant! Thanks very much for your work. You might be receiving many “love calls” from translation agencies yourself in future…
Hi, one of my friends directed me to this and I personally thought it was hilarious. I’m Korean and I have often done translations and I say Joe’s translations look great. The other articles are more or less the same, one is an article about the original article and another is about the Korean Net’s reaction to the original story.
I don’t listen to pop, but now I’m curious as to what a chemistry phd sings about.
@Neil and Han, thanks for the kind words! I work on a 100% pro-bono basis, so if you ever stumble across anymore articles in Korean (or Chinese), I’d love to translate them.
I hadn’t heard of Lucid Fall either, but apparently he’s popular among the ladies for his romantic lyrics.
Here’s one of his songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m-zAcR0XXg
It’s called “Can You See It?”
The author of the paper, Dr. Jo got noticed at the age of 18 when he was awarded the bronze medal at the music contest, established to cherish Jaeha Yoo, who was a great musician and died young. His band “Miseoni,” one of typical girl’s names in Korea, debuted in 1997 and the first official album of the band was released in 1998. The band was quite a big success in Korean indie scene.
In 2001, his first solo album “LUCID FALL” was released and he started to use Lucid Fall his name as a musician. He participated in a few movies as a music director as well. He went to Sweden for his master’s degree and then Switzerland for PhD afterwards. He released his 2nd and 3rd album in Korea while he was a student in the continent and even had concert tours during winter break for many years. He wrote songs for other musicians in Korea and participated in many albums of other musicians.
He could have continued to do research as a post doc or something. But he came back to Korea to pursue music that he loved after he finished his PhD.
His 4th official album was released yesterday (December 11, 2009). The reasons his paper on Nature Chemistry or JACS is mentioned not in science section are mostly because he has been better known as a musician who was PhD in chemistry rather than a “pure” chemist.
Lucid fall’s KPOP WIKI page is https://www.kpopwiki.com/index.php?title=Lucid_Fall
and he has a page at myspace (of course!) https://www.myspace.com/thelucidfalll
I can say that he is a great musician. It is almost impossible not be touched by his lyrics and melody.