Super Genius DNA

“Solar energy…”

Young-Joon stared at the banner that was hung on the building.

“Are you interested?” Ban Du-Il asked.

“I am. Do you remember that cold chain contest the Gates Foundation had back in the day?” Young-Joon replied.

“Yeah, you applied for it. You said you were going to get research funding and a scholarship, but…”

“I didn’t even make it far enough to present.”

“The idea you wrote was to attach a solar generator to the transportation to keep the medicine or food cold as it traveled from the equator to the interior of Africa?”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you get in?”

“They said that the cost of installing and maintaining solar-integrated panels large enough to provide that much power on a ship or vehicle was impractical.”

“I see.”

“And you have to store the power when it’s sunny to make up for the lack of power during cloudy weather or at night, which they said would be difficult.”

“Who ended up winning that contest?” Ban Du-Il asked.

“No one did. There were no winners who had their ideas commercialized. They just gave a few recognition awards to creative ideas, and that was it,” Young-Joon replied.

“Do you want to listen to that seminar?”

“Can visitors listen to it? It’s not even a seminar being held by our department, right?”

“If Ryu Young-Joon wants to go, they’re definitely not going to stop you. Besides, it’s a small seminar, so you can get a ticket at the door as well.”

Young-Joon thought for a moment, then shook his head.

“Ah, never mind. I’m just stopping by to deliver a scholarship, and I have to get back anyway.”

At last, Ban Du-Il and Young-Joon went to the fourth floor of Jungyoon University’s administration building to visit the president’s office. They had to visit the president’s office because the amount of funding, one hundred billion won, was too big for the faculty office to handle on their own.

“Oh, Doctor Ryu! Hello!”

Yeom Joo-Pil, the president of Jungyoon University, was filling out paperwork. When he saw Young-Joon arrive, he jumped out of his seat.

“Welcome! Haha, I should have greeted you downstairs. If you had let me know you were here at the front door, I would have come to escort you.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s my alma mater,” Young-Joon said, chuckling. “I’ve been here before when the students held a rally because the previous president embezzled money or something.”

“Ack…”

Yeom Ju-Pil flinched.

“Haha… As you know, I was appointed after that…You know that, right?”

“Of course. I trust you will be completely transparent with your budget.”

“Yes, we even disclose the breakdown of the costs.”

Chuckling, Yeom Ju-Pil led Young-Joon to the sofa.

“I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such a good alumnus. I heard today that the total amount of money you’re giving out in scholarships and research grants is over one hundred billion won.”

“That’s right.”

“Wow. Our entire school brings in about two hundred billion won in tuition revenue, and you’re investing almost half of that amount on one faculty.”

“Because modern science is a discipline that runs on money.”

“You are amazing, Mr. Ryu. Professor Ban Du-Il raised an incredible student.”

The president glanced at Ban Du-Il while he continued to praise Young-Joon.

Then, Ban Du-Il intervened.

“Thanks to Young-Joon, our department will be able to buy a Next Generation Sequencing machine and an ultracentrifuge that we’ve wanted to buy for a long time. Haha, they’re both in the billions, so the department administration couldn’t purchase them easily.”

“You should buy five or six of those because you’ll be sharing them a lot,” Young-Joon said.

“We should.”

“Oh, by the way, you know the Jungyoon Paper, right?” Yeom Ju-Pil asked.

“The school newspaper?”

“Yes. They asked us in advance if they could film you giving us the donation today. Could I let them?”

“Um…”

Young-Joon wasn’t too keen on the idea of doing something like this and taking pictures to publicize it. But because the journalists who run the school newspaper were also students, he felt like he shouldn’t decline.

“I can’t stay here long. Are the reporters here?”

“They just came out mid-class right now.”

“Oh, I interrupted their class.”

Knock knock!

Before Young-Joon could finish, someone knocked on the door.

Four young students, two male and two female, who still looked like high school students, appeared.

“Hello!”

“We’re from the Jungyoon Paper.”

They approached Young-Joon and the president with cameras and a microphone.

“Could we get a short interview? Um… Ryu Young-Joon… sunbae…”

One of the female students’ voices trembled slightly as she handed the microphone to Young-Joon.

“Thank you for calling me sunbae. It’s refreshing to be back in school,” Young-Joon said.

The students smiled brightly.

The female student who handed him the microphone, who also happened to be the student reporter, asked, “We heard that you’re donating a whopping one hundred billion won to the school today, is that right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Not only Jungyoon University, but we’re also going to invest in biological departments, medical schools, and any lab that works with stem cells regardless of their department in other universities across the country.”

“Thank you. I’m in the electronic and electrical engineering department; do you plan to give us any funding?”

“Haha, I’m sorry. This funding is coming from company funds to provide quality education to students so we can produce future employees for A-GenBio or the Next Generation Hospital. As much as I’d like to invest in other departments, I cannot,” Young-Joon replied.

“Haha, of course. It was just a joke to break the ice. I will transfer to bioengineering,” the student said playfully.

“You don’t have to. Jungyoon University is my alma mater… I will also personally donate to the other departments. It will be enough to cover a semester’s worth of tuition.”

“Wow…”

“Thank you so much!”

The students shouted.

“Now, diving into the interview…”

“Before that, let me ask you a question. This is just out of curiosity, but you said you were in the electronic and electrical engineering department, right?” Young-Joon asked.

“Yes.”

“On my way here, I saw that you are holding a solar energy seminar today.”

“That’s right!”

“Is that a graduate school seminar? Are visitors also allowed to attend?”

“I thought you weren’t going to attend,” Ban Du-Il asked.

“It turns out I’m interested after all.”

“Visitors can also get a ticket at the door and attend,” said the students. “We’re also going to go there in the afternoon. Do you want us to take you there?”

“Sure, after the interview,” Young-Joon said.

*

Professor Kim Gwang-Myung received shocking news before the seminar began. Young-Joon, the greatest superstar of science right now, was visiting the school to donate one hundred billion won to his alma mater.

“I hope you guys succeed and invest in our department, too,” Kim Gwang-Myung joked to the students.

Then, just before he got on stage to give his lecture, he received even more shocking news. It was that Young-Joon had signed up for the alternative power seminar.

“Our seminar?” Kim Gwang-Myung asked the teaching assistant from the department office who delivered the news. “A biologist is listening to our seminar? Why would he?”

The teaching assistant shrugged.

“I don’t know. He just contacted us to sign up, saying that he’ll be here soon. He’s only going to attend a few of the lectures.”

“Not mine, I hope. It’s a little intimidating to have a superstar CEO like that come to your class, even if he’s in a different field…” Kim Gwang-Myung said, trailing off.

Then, the conference host spoke into the microphone.

“The next session will be presented by Professor Kim Gwang-Myung from the electronic and electrical engineering department.”

There was a round of applause.

As Kim Gwang-Myung walked onto the stage, he saw the door to the lecture hall opening. Young-Joon was walking in.

“Um… I will begin now.”

Kim Gwang-Myung opened his presentation on his computer.

“As you all know, electricity used to be supplied by oil or coal, which is extremely polluting to the air, leading to a search for alternative power sources. Hydropower and wind power were once popular, but they have not become a universal power source due to their limitation in location.

“Nuclear power has emerged as an important item, but it is not the best option because as seen in the Chernobyl Disaster or the Fukushima Incident, it causes serious damage that is difficult to repair,” Kim Gwang-Myung said.

He added, “Solar energy has the advantage that you can go anywhere on the planet and collect energy without being limited by location, it’s almost pollution-free, and the energy source is almost inexhaustible. It’s especially valid for underdeveloped countries in the equatorial regions, as it is not easy to build huge, advanced power plants like nuclear power plants there.”

Kim Gwang-Myung glanced at Young-Joon. He looked deep in thought.

“But there are two major obstacles to utilizing solar energy. One is the efficiency of power supply and demand. The efficiency of solar cells is around ten percent, which is very low. That means that if we get one hundred kilowatts of solar energy, we can only use ten of it for power, and the rest is lost to thermal energy.

“Considering the efficiency of nuclear or thermal power, which is about forty to fifty percent, or hydroelectric power, which is close to ninety percent, it’s a really poor value,” Kim Gwang-Myung explained.

“The second obstacle is the disadvantages of polysilicon, the raw material for solar cells. It requires a lot of money and power to process, which makes it uneconomical. It also has a relatively short lifespan, around twenty years, and various toxic substances are emitted during the production process, which raises the question of whether it is really eco-friendly.”

Kim Gwang-Myung’s lecture went on for another thirty minutes. Some of the students were growing bored, but Young-Joon was having a lot of discussions with Rosaline in his head.

At last, it was time for questions. A few visiting speakers, professors, and students asked questions. As Kim Gwang-Myung was about to wrap up his presentation…

“I have a question.”

Young-Joon raised his hand.

Kim Gwang-Myung gulped.

The professors at the seminar waited with some nervousness to see what question Young-Joon would ask.

“Yes, go ahead, Doctor Ryu,” Kim Gwang-Myung replied.

“First of all, thank you for the lecture. I’m asking this because I don’t know much about the field. You mentioned the two big disadvantages of solar energy, so if we could change the material and increase the efficiency to one hundred percent, would it be possible to make a mobile giant freezer with solar power that can be self-powered?”

“A mobile freezer?”

“The cold chain is the biggest challenge when moving medicine or food to interior regions in equatorial countries like Africa. Some medicines need to be kept at temperatures as low as minus seventy degrees Celsius, which makes it impossible to deliver because of the weather and road conditions.”

That was when Kim Gwang-Myung understood why Young-Joon had attended the seminar.

“It is possible, but you would need a device that can store energy so you can supply power during the night,” Kim Gwang-Myung said.

“Is there such a thing?”

“It’s called an energy storage system, or ESS. It’s a bunch of lithium cells connected together to make a really big battery. It’s usually not suitable for a mobile vehicle, and it’s usually built into a building.”

“Can you put an ESS on a car and do what you just described?” Young-Joon asked.

“Haha, I don’t know. You’d have to factor in the weight and bulk of it, but if you could make a crazy solar cell that can provide close to one hundred percent of the power, it might work.”

Kim Gwang-Myung shrugged.

“But it won’t be easy, because that’s what I and other professors have been working on for twenty years, and we still don’t have an answer.”

“Isn’t it because silicon is not good at converting solar energy into electricity?” Young-Joon asked.

“Yes, but that’s the best we have. There’s no other material in nature that absorbs solar energy as well as it does.”

“There is,” Young-Joon said.

“Pardon?”

Young-Joon quietly pointed outside. He could see the branches swaying in the wind and the lush foliage. Three ornamental garden trees were planted outside the drab engineering building.

“If electricity is all about getting energy through the flow of electrons, then the exact same mechanism exists in plants at a very high efficiency,” Young-Joon said. “You can take the electron transport system from the thylakoid membrane of the chloroplasts in the leaves of plants or algae.”