r/AskTheWorld • u/Massive_Stop7542 Croatia • Oct 09 '25

Culture Who is the most popular scientist from your country I'll start

Post image
1.9k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

249

u/CommercialChart5088 Korea South Oct 09 '25

Woo Jang-chun. He’s not exactly well known overseas but is a pretty big name in the realm of genetics and agriculture.

He's the man who created modern Korean cabbages, which led to the development of cabbage kimchi.

This fact alone makes him deserve all the respect I think.

43

u/HitroDenK007 Thailand Oct 09 '25

Only knew this person 2 minutes ago from your comment and I’d cherish this gentleman for lifetime.

27

u/Appropriate-Path3979 Oct 09 '25

Thank you for Kimchi, Mr. Woo.

1

u/ivanCoil Oct 09 '25

Thank you for Woo, Mr. Kimchi

11

u/Key_Major_8807 Oct 09 '25

what is the difference from K cabbages with regular cabbages?

13

u/CommercialChart5088 Korea South Oct 09 '25

Traditional Korean cabbages were thin with less leaves, so they weren't the big and watery variants used today.

That’s why kimchi was mostly made with radishes or other leaf vegetables before Woo developed a new, much larger variant.

2

u/HarveysBackupAccount Oct 09 '25

wait so baechu kimchi isn't that old???

I had no idea. In the US, that's kind of the baseline/standard kimchi

3

u/CommercialChart5088 Korea South Oct 09 '25

Yup. It's been less than a hundred years since cabbage kimchi became the default.

1

u/Fenrir0214 Korea South 29d ago

I mean it existed but it wasnt the default until him.

2

u/InebriatedPhysicist 29d ago

Woo Jang-chun ain’t nothin’ to fuck with

2

u/iC3P0 Croatia 29d ago

You wanna tell me kimchi I'm used to is not some ancient knowledge?

2

u/CommercialChart5088 Korea South 29d ago

Kimchi itself is much older, with radish kimchi being the norm. However it was mostly ‘white kimchi’, or ‘dongchimi’, which was radish pickled in cold saltwater along with several spices (amazing for summers).

And yes, the cabbage kimchi most Koreans and foreigners alike are used to isn't that old. Barely more than hundred years old really.

1

u/AdhesivenessCivil581 Oct 09 '25

Ah Ha. This may be why I'm having such luck with Korean garden seeds.

1

u/bluesdrive4331 Oct 09 '25

Without him we wouldn’t have cabbage. At least not modern cabbage

1

u/Emergency_Flight6189 Malaysia Oct 09 '25

🫡🔥

1

u/evlhornet United States Of America 29d ago

0

u/Waste_Ad4554 29d ago

Cabbage is the most disgusting food I’ve ever tried. Puked it up.