![Science Magazine Epi (Quarterly): Issue 33 [2025]](http://librairie.coreenne.fr/cdn/shop/files/0cdd91110408c7d1a04567d3396e2807.jpg?v=1765355508&width=3840)
Science Magazine Epi (Quarterly): Issue 33 [2025]
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Description
Book Introduction
As summers get hotter due to the climate crisis, will home runs at baseball stadiums increase or decrease? Is the advent of machine umpires a step forward or a step backward for baseball? Issue 33 of the science magazine Epi presents a special feature on "baseball" to mark the start of fall.
From how to enjoy baseball without getting angry to how to balance data and intuition.
Baseball, viewed through the lens of science, is full of the joys of surprise and discovery, like a come-from-behind victory with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
From how to enjoy baseball without getting angry to how to balance data and intuition.
Baseball, viewed through the lens of science, is full of the joys of surprise and discovery, like a come-from-behind victory with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Introduction | How to Enjoy Baseball Without Getting Angry | Hwang Seung-sik 8
EXHALATION
Why Playing Balls Captivates Us | Jeon Jung-hwan, 20
The Age of Climate Balls Has Arrived | Nam Jong-young, 34
Ohtani's Pitches, the Yankees' Bats: The Physics of Baseball | Lee Jong-pil 52
The Numbers That Changed Baseball and the Numbers That Changed Baseball | Jang Won-cheol 68
Robot Umpires: A Decline or Evolution of Baseball | Song Min-gu, 82
Everything About the Field Changed by Biomechanics | Lee Gi-kwang 100
Data is yesterday's data; we must trust today's players | Jeong Min-cheol 118
God ANSIBLE
This Season's New Book | Knowledge Is Right Here, on the Lake | Jeong In-gyeong 136
Science Issue Spotlight | Japan's Great Earthquake: Between 'Ghost Story' and Reality | Yoon Shin-young 148
Science News Observatory | Research? People Tracking Down Fraud, Science Detectives' Activities and New Challenges | Oh Cheol-woo 158
Global Climate Report | Swinging Climate: A 'Double Punch' Strengthened | Shin Bang-sil 174
Ter FOUNDATION
Contemporary Art, Exploring Science | Fine-Tuned? Bodily Sense | Hunida Kim 188
Music, and | #7? Algorithm? Composition:? The Results? Follow the Method | Jang Jae-ho 202
Science Takes the Stage | Together? Endure,? Manifestly? Crossing? Bodies | Chance 216
Essay | Why is Baseball Good? | Yoon Seong-hee 228
Road FARCAST
Meeting a Scientist on the Lawyer's Path | Moon Hyung-bae 242
Humans and AI, Harmonizing Through Korean Traditional Music | Lecture Hall·Jeong Jae-hoon 258
INDEX 282
EXHALATION
Why Playing Balls Captivates Us | Jeon Jung-hwan, 20
The Age of Climate Balls Has Arrived | Nam Jong-young, 34
Ohtani's Pitches, the Yankees' Bats: The Physics of Baseball | Lee Jong-pil 52
The Numbers That Changed Baseball and the Numbers That Changed Baseball | Jang Won-cheol 68
Robot Umpires: A Decline or Evolution of Baseball | Song Min-gu, 82
Everything About the Field Changed by Biomechanics | Lee Gi-kwang 100
Data is yesterday's data; we must trust today's players | Jeong Min-cheol 118
God ANSIBLE
This Season's New Book | Knowledge Is Right Here, on the Lake | Jeong In-gyeong 136
Science Issue Spotlight | Japan's Great Earthquake: Between 'Ghost Story' and Reality | Yoon Shin-young 148
Science News Observatory | Research? People Tracking Down Fraud, Science Detectives' Activities and New Challenges | Oh Cheol-woo 158
Global Climate Report | Swinging Climate: A 'Double Punch' Strengthened | Shin Bang-sil 174
Ter FOUNDATION
Contemporary Art, Exploring Science | Fine-Tuned? Bodily Sense | Hunida Kim 188
Music, and | #7? Algorithm? Composition:? The Results? Follow the Method | Jang Jae-ho 202
Science Takes the Stage | Together? Endure,? Manifestly? Crossing? Bodies | Chance 216
Essay | Why is Baseball Good? | Yoon Seong-hee 228
Road FARCAST
Meeting a Scientist on the Lawyer's Path | Moon Hyung-bae 242
Humans and AI, Harmonizing Through Korean Traditional Music | Lecture Hall·Jeong Jae-hoon 258
INDEX 282
Detailed image
Into the book
I gave the students pieces of paper and asked them to write down every foul fairly.
Although they watched the same game, students 'fairly' wrote that the opposing team committed more fouls.
Natural selection does not always lead us to unbiasedly accept objective truth.
Even if it wasn't true, ancestors who firmly believed in the 'irrational belief' that they could communicate their fervent loyalty to our group to their comrades were more likely to be selected for reproductive advantage.
--- p.31, Jeon Jung-hwan, "Why Does Playing Ball Captivate Us?"
The prestigious Oakland Athletics, the subject of the movie "Moneyball," were looking to build a new stadium near the Port Terminal to replace the aging Oakland Coliseum, once praised for its brutalist aesthetic.
They tried to build a permanent stadium to account for rising sea levels, but failed to convince public opinion.
The Athletics eventually moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2028.
Why go to such a hot place? Because Las Vegas is building a really cool retractable dome stadium.
--- p.45, Nam Jong-young, "The Climate Ball Era is Coming"
Linhardt analyzed hitter data and found that the area where the ball was hit on the bat was slightly closer to the wrist than the traditional sweet spot.
So the idea behind the torpedo bat is to redistribute the bat's mass to make the tip thinner and concentrate more mass in the areas of the bat where batters frequently hit the ball for effective hitting.
--- p.65, Lee Jong-pil, "Ohtani's Pitches, the Yankees' Bats: The Physics of Baseball"
During the 0.4 seconds it takes for a ball flying at 150 km/h to pass home plate, the umpire must visually observe the ball's three-dimensional trajectory to determine the strike zone.
In an age where athletes strive for millimeter-level accuracy, the moment of actual performance is still left to human intuition, just as it was a century ago.
This stark gap is precisely why baseball has finally turned its attention to the final piece of the puzzle: ABS.
--- p.87, Song Min-gu, "Robot Umpires: A Decline or Evolution of Baseball?"
But the laboratory environment is different from the actual stadium.
It is difficult for pitchers to perform at their full potential on an indoor artificial mound rather than on a familiar baseball field, and for batters to hit fixed balls or balls thrown by pitching machines rather than actual pitchers.
The fundamental question always followed: 'Is this really the player's actual performance?'
--- p.111, Lee Gi-kwang, "Everything About the Ground Changed by Biomechanics"
Baseballs also have a set number of threads.
However, the thread height can vary very slightly.
Even such subtle physical differences have a huge impact on pitchers.
In reality, there are dozens of balls used in a single game, and not all of them are completely consistent.
So there's a scene where pitchers pick up the ball, touch it once, and then ask to change it.
It is the pitcher's role to calculate those physical conditions with his body.
Even a single thread on the ball or a few grams of weight on the glove can be variables that shake a pitcher's senses.
--- p.123, Jeong Min-cheol, "Data is yesterday's; we must trust today's players."
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) also states in its "Frequently Asked Questions" section, "No scientist has ever predicted a major earthquake," and "We don't even expect to know. Rather than predicting short-term earthquakes, the USGS focuses its efforts on mitigating seismic risks and improving structural safety over the long term."
Predicting is still scientifically impossible, but that doesn't mean scientists are giving up.
--- p.153, Yoon Shin-young, "The Great Japanese Earthquake: Between 'Ghost Tales' and Actual Predictions"
If there is to be one last person left in this society, I think it should be a scientist.
We all share what scientists have created.
Isn't that right? (...) Lawyers don't create wealth.
You can wipe away someone's tears, but there's a limit to how much you can do to make them happy.
I hope that kind of thinking spreads a bit more throughout society.
--- p.257, Moon Hyung-bae, "Meeting Scientists on the Path of a Lawyer"
Publisher's Review
Baseball and science, kill two birds with one stone!
There is science hidden in every single baseball ball and swing.
In Episode 33, we look at baseball through the lens of science, including physics, evolutionary psychology, and statistics.
Scientific discourse surrounding baseball, including the fairness of robot umpires, the climate crisis, and sabermetrics, was analyzed in depth by experts in the field, ranging from scientists to team officials and former players to commentators.
Instinct throws
Science hits
In his article, “Why Do Ball Games Captivate Us?”, evolutionary psychologist Jeon Jung-hwan explains why we are so passionate about team sports from the perspective of human evolution.
Team sports like baseball are said to have originated from "team fighting games," where our ancestors practiced surprise attack techniques needed to fight other tribes.
They say that having a biased perspective when cheering for a team, such as "If we win, it's a strike, if you win, it's a ball," is also an evolutionary instinct for surviving inter-tribal competition.
Just as fans were thrilled when the Boston Red Sox won their first championship in 86 years, loyalty to a baseball team isn't just a hobby; it's part of human nature.
The desire to win leads to the creation of new pitches and bats that have never been seen before.
In his book, "Ohtani's Pitch, Yankees' Bat: The Physics of Baseball," physicist Jongpil Lee explains the principles behind the "sweeper," the controversial pitch thrown by Shohei Ohtani in the WBC finals.
We also analyze the "torpedo bat," the secret to the New York Yankees' early-season home run spree. Designed by an MIT physicist, this bat concentrates mass in the sweet spot (the optimal point where the ball is struck without vibration), allowing batters to strike the ball more accurately.
In this process, the analysis of hitting data revealed that the actual hitting point was closer to the wrist than the existing sweet spot, and the attempt to redistribute mass demonstrated the fusion of sabermetrics and physics.
The climate crisis is shaking
Robots reorganize
Researcher Nam Jong-young's "The Climate Ball Era is Coming" explains how climate change is changing baseball.
Even die-hard baseball fans will find it interesting to hear research showing that the hotter it gets, the lower the air density, leading to more home runs, or that when temperatures exceed 35 degrees Celsius, the rate of umpire errors increases by 5.5%.
In the future, dome stadiums are expected to increase in Korea, including the SSG Landers' Cheongna Dome Stadium and the remodeled Jamsil Dome Stadium. However, it is noteworthy that the contradiction that dome stadiums are both a climate adaptation measure and a source of greenhouse gas emissions was pointed out, and alternatives were sought by introducing fan-led climate action movements such as 'K-Bopple.'
The insight that baseball is not just a sport, but can be a platform for experiencing climate change and sparking action is striking.
Daegu MBC commentator Song Min-gu's book, "Robot Umpires: The Corruption or Evolution of Baseball?", provides an easy-to-understand explanation of why the ABS (Automatic Pitch Judgment System), which will be introduced to Korean professional baseball for the first time in the world in 2024, was necessary and how it works.
It also provides a balanced treatment of the technical aspects and philosophical implications of ABS adoption.
It excels in capturing specific changes, such as data showing a spike in error rate of 11.2% in leveraged situations, the end of catcher framing, and the evolution of nibbling strategies. While explaining the operating principles of the PTS system, it candidly acknowledges its technical limitations, such as the inability to reflect individual batters' stances. The book also highlights the gap between human intuition and data through the "edge case" debate.
The insight that “baseball has evolved from a ‘sport that includes human error’ to a ‘sport that competes solely on human skill’” and the concern that the introduction of technology could undermine the essence of baseball go beyond simple praise of technology and offer a profound reflection.
Absolute balance between sense and data
Interview with Hanwha Eagles retired number Jeong Min-cheol
It contains an interview with Jeong Min-cheol, a former Hanwha Eagles legendary pitcher, former coach, and current MBC Sports Plus commentator.
Having acquired both a feel for the mound and data-driven strategies, he stated in an interview that baseball has rapidly changed from experience-based to data-driven since the 2010s with the introduction of cutting-edge equipment like TrackMan and Rapsodo.
He experienced subtle variables like humidity and thread during his playing days, and achieved results with data-based defensive shifts during his time as a general manager. However, he emphasized the balance between past statistics and on-field experience, saying, “Data is from yesterday, and we have to trust today’s players.”
He emphasizes that “humility to constantly learn without jumping to conclusions” is especially important in both baseball and science.
In addition, Episode 33 features a special lecture at KAIST by former Constitutional Court Justice Moon Hyung-bae, which sheds light on the relationship between science and law, and an interview with mathematician Jeong Jae-hoon, who composed traditional Korean music using artificial intelligence.
Through this, we deeply illuminate the meaning created by the intersection of different fields such as science, law, and art.
There is science hidden in every single baseball ball and swing.
In Episode 33, we look at baseball through the lens of science, including physics, evolutionary psychology, and statistics.
Scientific discourse surrounding baseball, including the fairness of robot umpires, the climate crisis, and sabermetrics, was analyzed in depth by experts in the field, ranging from scientists to team officials and former players to commentators.
Instinct throws
Science hits
In his article, “Why Do Ball Games Captivate Us?”, evolutionary psychologist Jeon Jung-hwan explains why we are so passionate about team sports from the perspective of human evolution.
Team sports like baseball are said to have originated from "team fighting games," where our ancestors practiced surprise attack techniques needed to fight other tribes.
They say that having a biased perspective when cheering for a team, such as "If we win, it's a strike, if you win, it's a ball," is also an evolutionary instinct for surviving inter-tribal competition.
Just as fans were thrilled when the Boston Red Sox won their first championship in 86 years, loyalty to a baseball team isn't just a hobby; it's part of human nature.
The desire to win leads to the creation of new pitches and bats that have never been seen before.
In his book, "Ohtani's Pitch, Yankees' Bat: The Physics of Baseball," physicist Jongpil Lee explains the principles behind the "sweeper," the controversial pitch thrown by Shohei Ohtani in the WBC finals.
We also analyze the "torpedo bat," the secret to the New York Yankees' early-season home run spree. Designed by an MIT physicist, this bat concentrates mass in the sweet spot (the optimal point where the ball is struck without vibration), allowing batters to strike the ball more accurately.
In this process, the analysis of hitting data revealed that the actual hitting point was closer to the wrist than the existing sweet spot, and the attempt to redistribute mass demonstrated the fusion of sabermetrics and physics.
The climate crisis is shaking
Robots reorganize
Researcher Nam Jong-young's "The Climate Ball Era is Coming" explains how climate change is changing baseball.
Even die-hard baseball fans will find it interesting to hear research showing that the hotter it gets, the lower the air density, leading to more home runs, or that when temperatures exceed 35 degrees Celsius, the rate of umpire errors increases by 5.5%.
In the future, dome stadiums are expected to increase in Korea, including the SSG Landers' Cheongna Dome Stadium and the remodeled Jamsil Dome Stadium. However, it is noteworthy that the contradiction that dome stadiums are both a climate adaptation measure and a source of greenhouse gas emissions was pointed out, and alternatives were sought by introducing fan-led climate action movements such as 'K-Bopple.'
The insight that baseball is not just a sport, but can be a platform for experiencing climate change and sparking action is striking.
Daegu MBC commentator Song Min-gu's book, "Robot Umpires: The Corruption or Evolution of Baseball?", provides an easy-to-understand explanation of why the ABS (Automatic Pitch Judgment System), which will be introduced to Korean professional baseball for the first time in the world in 2024, was necessary and how it works.
It also provides a balanced treatment of the technical aspects and philosophical implications of ABS adoption.
It excels in capturing specific changes, such as data showing a spike in error rate of 11.2% in leveraged situations, the end of catcher framing, and the evolution of nibbling strategies. While explaining the operating principles of the PTS system, it candidly acknowledges its technical limitations, such as the inability to reflect individual batters' stances. The book also highlights the gap between human intuition and data through the "edge case" debate.
The insight that “baseball has evolved from a ‘sport that includes human error’ to a ‘sport that competes solely on human skill’” and the concern that the introduction of technology could undermine the essence of baseball go beyond simple praise of technology and offer a profound reflection.
Absolute balance between sense and data
Interview with Hanwha Eagles retired number Jeong Min-cheol
It contains an interview with Jeong Min-cheol, a former Hanwha Eagles legendary pitcher, former coach, and current MBC Sports Plus commentator.
Having acquired both a feel for the mound and data-driven strategies, he stated in an interview that baseball has rapidly changed from experience-based to data-driven since the 2010s with the introduction of cutting-edge equipment like TrackMan and Rapsodo.
He experienced subtle variables like humidity and thread during his playing days, and achieved results with data-based defensive shifts during his time as a general manager. However, he emphasized the balance between past statistics and on-field experience, saying, “Data is from yesterday, and we have to trust today’s players.”
He emphasizes that “humility to constantly learn without jumping to conclusions” is especially important in both baseball and science.
In addition, Episode 33 features a special lecture at KAIST by former Constitutional Court Justice Moon Hyung-bae, which sheds light on the relationship between science and law, and an interview with mathematician Jeong Jae-hoon, who composed traditional Korean music using artificial intelligence.
Through this, we deeply illuminate the meaning created by the intersection of different fields such as science, law, and art.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: September 1, 2025
- Page count, weight, size: 304 pages | 115*180*30mm
- ISBN13: 9772586200334
- ISBN10: 25862006
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