Hard macromolecular science

High ideals, creative imagination and hard work were never more splendidly and more deservedly rewarded than in the case of Hermann Staudinger, the founder and apostle of "Macromolecular Science."... 

Although all of these attempts had a noble purpose indeed, the means used could hardly be considered a contribution to science, as the transformation of the simple molecules of a diene into the colloidal substance known as rubber was then far beyond the comprehension of chemical science. As a matter of fact, the commercial production of synthetic rubber was already well established, at least in Germany and Russia, before Staudinger laid the basis for his macromolecular hypothesis during the 1920s (Staudinger, 1920). Even such relatively modern synthetic elastomers as polychloroprene and the poly(alkylene sulfides) were... 

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