[Current & Culture] Lessons from Hwang Woo-suk at the Center of the Superconductor Debate

A Calmer, More Mature Society
Perhaps Dr. Hwang Woo-suk's True Gift

Watching the recent uproar over the superconductor issue in the country, Dr. Hwang Woo-suk came to mind. Once a national hero, he fell from grace in an instant. He was found guilty in court of fabricating research data and illegally collecting eggs necessary for experiments. That was already 18 years ago. His whereabouts, long forgotten by the public, were unexpectedly revealed through the Netflix documentary "King of Clone."

The documentary begins with Hwang Woo-suk crossing a desolate desert alone. Driving without a companion, the song he chose to play was none other than Yang Hee-eun’s "Morning Dew." The sun rises red over the graveyard, and the scorching midday heat is endured as a trial while heading into the harsh wilderness. It seems he saw himself as a martyr, like the figure in the song.

Surprisingly, he has continued animal cloning research in the Middle East. Invited by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government, he reportedly has cloned over 1,000 animals. He revealed that the Middle Eastern oil tycoon Mansour is his boss, and throughout the documentary, he maintains a confident attitude. While admitting to having been overly ambitious in the past, he asserts that if reborn, he would walk the same path again. It is curious where the end of his research will be, even at over seventy years old in a distant foreign land. Recent news reports say he is pushing forward with a pet cloning service in collaboration with a domestic company. One can somewhat guess the direction of his research. Is he planning to gift youth and health to Middle Eastern billionaires? Hopefully, he’s not going to clone Mansour himself later on.

Opinions on Hwang Woo-suk vary. As a person, I acknowledge his dreams and will, but as a scientist, I want to give him a failing grade. He abandoned his duty. Data fabrication is a disqualifying factor for a scientist. I think of it in the same context as a slow runner, a secular religious person, or a cowardly soldier. Some see him as a notorious fraudster and criminal, viewing him even more negatively than I do. On the other hand, some consider him a scientist who made mistakes out of greed. Reviews of the documentary include comments praising him as an unlucky genius and hero who met the wrong era. Once his ongoing research is fully completed, I am curious about how future generations will evaluate him.

Reactions to the superconductor controversy are as varied as the evaluations of Hwang Woo-suk. I am on the side that sees the likelihood of success as low but earnestly hopes for it to succeed. The development of engineering so far has always increased human convenience at the cost of destroying nature, so I hope the commercialization of superconductors will change that trend or at least slow it down. Those who see a high chance of success have started betting, and the stock market is already buzzing. Cynics are flooding social media with mocking memes. Photoshopped images of Sebitseom floating in the sky above the Han River, tweets claiming Korea University has surpassed Harvard (most of the researchers in the recent announcement are from Korea University), fake news about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman coming to ask for help from our country, now the richest nation in the world ? the imagination is at superconductor levels.

We always wait for heroes and dream of big wins. An immature society is easily shaken by fake heroes and fake jackpots. Whether the dream material superconductor will really be developed by our researchers is still unknown, but it is fortunate that our society seems a bit more calm and mature. Perhaps the gift Dr. Hwang Woo-suk gave us is the gift of reasonable skepticism.

Lee Jae-ik, Novelist

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.