Polymer science is a technology-driven science. More often than not, technological breakthroughs opened the gates to rapid fundamental and theoretical advances, dramatically broadening the understanding of experimental observations, and expanding the science itself. Some of the breakthroughs involved the creation of new materials. Among these one may enumerate the vulcanization of natural rubber, the derivatization of cellulose, the giant advances right before and during World War II in the preparation and characterization of synthetic elastomers and semi- crystalline polymers such as...