How Giant Molecules are Measured
When light passes through such molecules in solution, some of it is scattered. From this and other effects it is possible to determine the weight of the molecules and the degree to which they are folded...
Features
How Giant Molecules are made
New catalysts control the orientation of monomers as they are linked in chains. This greatly increases the range of properties that can be built into synthetic polymers
The Mechanical Properties of Polymers
Solid polymer materials may be glassy, leathery or rubbery. These qualities can be explained in terms of the structure of polymer molecules and how they are organized in solids
Polyethylene
The simplest polymer bids fair to become the Commmonest. Until recently it could be synthesized only at very high pressures. Now with the aid of catalysts it can be made at low pressure
Cellulose
This polymer is made not by man but by plants. Dissolved out of wood or cotton, it is reshaped into rayon and other artificial materials. Such materials still outweigh all those made from synthetic polymers...
Proteins
The principal substance of living cells, these giant molecules have identical backbones. Each is adapted to its specific task by a unique combination of side groups, size, folding and shape...
Nucleic Acids
These polymers appear to carry the pattern of living matter from one generation to the next. Their basic chain consists of sugars joined by phosphates. Attached to the sugars, in turn, are bases...
Giant Molecules in Cells and Tissues
How are protein and nucleic acid molecules organized in protoplasm? It appears, largely on the basis of evidence supplied by the electron microscope, that these molecules are monomers of higher polymers...
Departments
50 and 100 Years Ago: September 1957
Science and the Citizen: September 1957
- Letters
Letters to the Editors, September 1957
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