Institute for Basic Science

The Institute for Basic Science has come along way in its first decade of existence and has even higher aspirations for the future.

South Korea’s Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has revolutionized the country’s approach to the type of fundamental research that underpins breakthroughs with the potential to change society. With IBS in its tenth year, researchers reflect on what makes IBS so valuable and what the next decades will bring.

In fewer than 10 years the Institute for Basic Science has evolved from an idea to a multi-disciplinary web of 30 research centres tackling some of the most fundamental scientific questions of our time.

A focus on basic research is shifting scientific resources from Seoul to South Korea's central city.

Bilateral sensory stimulation, which is used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in humans, alleviates fear memory in mice through a circuit involving the superior colliculus and the medial thalamus.

Early results from the COSINE-100 experiment—designed to test a much-debated claim of the detection of a dark-matter signal—show no indications of dark matter, providing evidence against the previous claim.

In vitro digestion of genomic DNA with Cas9 and single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) yields genome-wide off-target sites at frequencies below 0.1%. Off-target sites can be further reduced with modified sgRNAs.

Clearance of macromolecules from the cerebrospinal fluid in mice takes place via meningeal lymphatic vessels at the base of the skull; both drainage and the integrity of these vessels deteriorate with age.

Femtosecond X-ray liquidography is used to track the vibrational wavepacket trajectories of gold atoms in solution, enabling time-resolved observations of the emergence of vibrations and the evolution of the formation of covalent bonds.

Heteroepitaxy is used to precisely control the growth of Mn₃O₄ shells on the faces of a Co₃O₄ nanocube crystal, producing uniform grain boundary defects and highly ordered multigrain nanostructures.

Our current understanding of the spatio-temporal complexity of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation phenomenon is reviewed and a unifying framework that identifies the key factors for this complexity is proposed.

Ferroelectric control of skyrmion density and stability is realized in a perovskite heterostructure.

Nanoparticles made under identical conditions can differ considerably from each other

The equator could bear the brunt of global warming thanks to fossil fuel emissions at higher latitudes

Adenine base editors make few errors, but greater precision is still needed ahead of their use in the clinic

Glass-forming liquids becoming increasingly cage-y as they cool to a solid-like state

Enzymes put different nucleotides onto messenger RNA tails to protect the molecules from degradation

The neural pathway by which repetitive eye movements can suppress the fear of past traumatic events has been discovered

Tunable magnetic swirls bring next-generation magnetic memory devices a step closer

Scientists succeed in measuring the spin of single atomic nuclei