Paul John Flory: A Life of Science and Friends is the first full-length treatment of the life and work of Paul John Flory, recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1974. It presents a chronological progression of his scientific, professional, and personal achievements as recounted and written by his former students and colleagues.This book cove

This sequel to A Prehistory of Polymer Science begins with the Faraday Discussion of 1935 on Polymerization. Patterson then examines the remarkable rise and establishment of polymer science after 1935 from the perspective of the emergence of strong intellectual leaders. While enough biographical detail is presented to gain an appreciation for the role played by each leader, the emphasis of this volume is on the key concepts associated with each individual and how the community embraced these leaders.

Contains short biographies of almost 1,000 scientists from around the world who made great contributions to science throughout history.

This history of the government-funded synthetic rubber research program (1942-1956) offers a rare analysis of a cooperative research program geared to the improvement of existing products and the creation of new ones. The founders of the program believed the best way to further research in the new field was through collaboration among corporations, universities, and the federal government. Morris concludes that, in fact, the effort was ultimately a failure and that vigorous competition proves the best way to stimulate innovation. Government programs, like the rubber research program, are far better at improving existing products, the author contends, than creating wholly new ones.

Accompanied by an introductory overview of the history of polymer science, this book contains biographical sketches of 12 pioneers, from Marcellin Berthollet and John Wesley Hyatt to Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta. It also includes time charts before each chapter that summarise significant events.

This book advocates the importance and value of errors for the progress of scientific research! Hans Kricheldorf explains that most of the great scientific achievements are based on an iterative process (an ‘innate self-healing mechanism’): errors are committed, being checked over and over again, through which finally new findings and knowledge can arise. New ideas are often first confronted with refusal. This is so not only in real life, but also in scientific and medical research. The author outlines in this book how great ideas had to ripen over time before winning recognition and being accepted. The book showcases in an entertaining way, but without schadenfreude, that even some of the most famous discoverers may appear in completely different light, when regarding errors they have committed in their work. This book is divided into two parts. The first part creates a fundament for the discussion and understanding by introducing important concepts, terms and definitions, such as (natural) sciences and scientific research, laws of nature, paradigm shift, and progress (in science). It compares natural sciences with other scientific disciplines, such as historical research or sociology, and examines the question if scientific research can generate knowledge of permanent validity. The second part contains a collection of famous fallacies and errors from medicine, biology, chemistry, physics and geology, and how they were corrected. Readers will be astonished and intrigued what meanders had to be explored in some cases before scientists realized facts, which are today’s standard and state-of-the-art of science and technology. This is an entertaining and amusing, but also highly informative book not only for scientists and specialists, but for everybody interested in science, research, their progress, and their history!

Noting a marked lack of comprehensiveness and/or contemporaneity among typical reference works on chemical etymology, as well as a somewhat spotty coverage of chemical terms and their etymology in comprehensive dictionaries and textbooks the author decided to write an up-to-date desk reference on chemical etymology which would satisfy the needs of casual readers as well as those of more demanding users of etymological lore. Characteristic user-friendly features of the present work include avoidance of cumbersome abbreviations, avoidance of entries in foreign alphabets, and a broad coverage of all chemical disciplines including mineralogy. Biological, medical, geological, physical and mathematical terms are only considered where they appear of interest to mainstream chemists.This book does not provide definitions of terms (unless required in the etymological context) nor guidance as to the timeliness of different nomenclature systems. The typical user will from the outset be well aware of the exact meaning of the terms he or she focuses on and only require the etymological background to be used. Examples of sources which have been drawn upon in the preparation of this book, apart from the extremely useful Internet resource Google, are listed, but an exhausting enumeration would be tiresome and impractical..* an up-to-date desk reference on chemical etymology* characteristic user-friendly features* broad coverage of all chemical disciplines