![[Step 3] The Nobel Prize in Physics will be awarded for ‘new horizons in space observation’… Solo award after 34 years](/api/img?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.yna.co.kr%2Fetc%2Finner%2FKR%2F2026%2F10%2F06%2FAKR20261006184752009_02_i_P2.jpg&w=1600&q=72&f=webp)
It began moving to the launch pad from the Naro Space Center Assembly Building in Goheung, Jeollanam-do at 6:10 a.m. on the 6th, a day before the fifth launch of Nuri, and is scheduled to launch at 12:25 p.m. on the 7th. Hanwha Aerospace will take charge of production for the fourth time, accelerating the private sector-led transition.
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the opening of the DMZ Native Botanical Garden in Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do, it surveyed 150 areas of the DMZ and border areas for the first time in Korea, established 8,284 plant specimens and a distributed plant database of 1,840 species, and created a North Korean Plant Exhibition Center to exhibit 54 species of North Korean plants and reveal works made by melting down actual DMZ iron fences.
The United States announced that it intends to deploy a 20 kW capacity nuclear reactor near the lunar south pole by December 2030, and reported that it is competing with China and Russia's 'Selena' project. Experts doubted meeting the deadline due to technical limitations and safety concerns.
Tokyo University of Science in Japan is working on a project to automate life science research using the ultra-precision robot 'Mahoro' in collaboration with Yaskawa Electric, and is planning to increase the success rate of experiments by combining AI and robots and expand the bio field, including the development of new drugs and vaccines.
The Korea Aerospace Administration announced that the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute will participate as an international cooperation partner in NASA's next-generation space telescope 'Prima' project. Prima, scheduled for launch in 2033, is a semi-large mission that studies the chemical evolution of galaxies, black hole co-evolution, star and planetary system formation, and the origin of water through far-infrared rays. The domestic research team supports cryogenic testing and spectroscopic calibration based on its experience in cooperation with SpearX.
Korea's first methane observation satellite, 'Gyeonggi Sat-2A', launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, succeeded in two-way communication with a ground station after launch. As part of the Gyeonggi Climate Satellite project, a collaboration between Gyeonggi Province, Nara Space, and Seoul National University's Climate Research Laboratory, it was equipped with a hyperspectral sensor that detects methane emission sources.
The National Institute of Toxicology (KIT) announced that it will establish a new 'Toxicology AI Data Center' to apply AI to toxicity data accumulated over decades, reduce the use of laboratory animals by using a virtual control group, and increase the efficiency of non-clinical testing.
A research team from Malardalen University in Sweden grew broccoli under magenta translucent solar panels and confirmed that it was possible to produce electricity while securing yields similar to open-field cultivation. This suggests the possibility of increasing the land use efficiency of agricultural solar power.
The National Honam Area Biological Resources Center announced that it has built a research support AI system that links institutional data and public biotechnology databases, centered on researchers who have received 'AI Champion Blue' certification from the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. This system is used to select substances and related genes with high industrialization potential, and in an empirical study on the application of the Mandu tree, 303 candidate substances and 37,625 genes were analyzed to derive priorities for eight utilization purposes. In system reliability verification, 22 out of 23 known reference substances (95.7%) were included in the top 20.
Seoul National University and the Samsung Future Technology Foundation will host 'QMS 2026', an international academic conference on quantum materials, in Gyeongju. About 80 domestic and foreign researchers will attend to share the latest research results, including magnetic van der Waals, strong correlation, and quantum spin, and discuss future key tasks and research directions.
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) research team announced on the 4th that it won the top prize in the demonstration category for the modular robot furniture system 'Bot Square' at the RO-MAN 2026 robot design competition held in Kitakyushu, Japan, and was honored for the second consecutive year.
Goyang City Agricultural Technology Center announced that it has confirmed that the aroma components of basil can be improved by controlling the nutrient solution concentration and harvest time when cultivating basil in the artificial light-type smart farm it built. This study shows the possibility of smart farms going beyond simple production facilities to precisely manage the quality perceived by consumers.
The Korea Marine and Offshore Plant Research Institute (KRISO) under the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries developed a buoyancy assistance system for ships using 3D laser scanning and existing fire extinguishing mains, reducing installation and maintenance costs by more than 90%, and succeeded in commercialization by transferring 7 patents to 5 companies free of charge. In addition, it is equipped with extreme environment testing facilities such as an ice water tank and a deep-sea engineering tank, and is pursuing ship safety and environmental protection at the same time by developing an AI-based damage control support system, digital maritime traffic control technology, and a vortex generator (K-V.G.).
Professor Lee Heon-sang's research team at Dong-A University succeeded in deriving the 'free energy coevolution variation principle' that explains the mechanism of interface creation, continuation, and collapse in a completely miscible fluid and quantitatively predicting the interface life.
The shark 'Bukangi' that appeared in Busan's North Port Waterside Park stayed for over 10 days and attracted more than 460,000 people. It is analyzed that the phenomenon of certain animals, such as fubao and wolf, receiving celebrity-level attention, is a combination of stimulation of human protective instinct, pure image of existence, narrative formation, and spread on social media, serving as healing content and conveying warmth to society.
The U.S. Earth Speech Project and the Elephant Voices research team analyzed the low-frequency choir sounds of African elephants using machine learning and discovered that the behavioral context of a herd can be predicted without separating individual voices. Acoustic convergence of sounds has been identified in certain situations, such as touch, rhythmic beats, and greeting calls, which may be related to social coordination in elephants.
Dr. Kim Ho-seop's research team at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, in collaboration with Incheon National University and Kyungpook National University, developed a technology to coat multilayer graphene at room temperature. Using the existing sputtering process, we laid the foundation for mass production of ultra-high-performance composite conductors that alternately stack copper and graphene. We applied for a total of 4 patents, including 3 domestic patents and 1 foreign patent, and the results were published in the international academic journal 'Surface & Coatings Technology'.
At an event held in Seoul, Nobel Prize-winning scholars said that while they evaluated AI as a powerful tool that will contribute to speeding up scientific research and solving difficult problems, opinions were mixed on the possibility of AI winning the Nobel Prize.
Three Nobel Prize winners and 16 domestic and international scholars held the 'Nobel Prize Dialogue Seoul 2026' at COEX in Seoul to discuss the future of science that AI will change, and had a discussion session with 6 high school and college students.
Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea announced that it has selected Professor Jang Bo-geun of Jeju National University, who identified the mechanism of gastric cancer development, Professor Joong-seon Kim of Yonsei University, who researched anti-thrombotic treatment strategies for atrial fibrillation, and Professor Dong-wook Kim of Yonsei University, who expanded the development of cell therapy for Parkinson's disease, as the winners of the 24th Pfizer Medicine Award. The awards ceremony will be held on November 4, and each winner will receive a prize of 50 million won and a plaque.
Professor Kim Tae-ho's team at Chonnam National University combined long-term monitoring data from the Jeju flounder farm and smart aquaculture testbed experiment data to discover the 'paradox of water treatment' phenomenon, in which some pathogens increase during the water purification process, and suggested that management of nitrogen components such as nitrate and nitrite is also necessary.
Busan City and the Busan Institute for Science and Technology Promotion (BISTEP) will hold the '12th Busan R&D Week' at BEXCO's 2nd exhibition hall on October 1-2. Under the theme of 'Connected Busan, Expanding Future', it covers major science and technology agendas directly related to Busan's future, such as marine AI transition, AI and manufacturing innovation, quantum sensing, future aviation, advanced regenerative medicine, and nurturing science and technology talent.
The theory of oil depletion in the 1970s and the short-term disappearance of Arctic sea ice in the 2000s led the public by encouraging fear without scientific basis, but eventually turned out to be errors, and the author warns that the theory of climate change crisis should also be verified through open discussion and a spirit of suspicion, not absolute dogmatism.
