How did we develop plastic? I mean, synthetic or semisynthetic organic amorphous solid materials? Polymers? Where and how did this all come from?
How did we evolve from rocks and stones to polymers ans synthetic material like plastic?
Posted On 03 Sep 2010 By kk. Under: Polymers. Tags: evolve, from, Like, material, Plastic, Polymers, rocks, stones, Synthetic
Mostly by trial and error.
The first human-made plastic was invented in 1862. The development of plastics has come from the use of natural plastic materials (e.g., chewing gum, shellac) to the use of chemically modified natural materials (e.g., rubber, nitrocellulose, collagen, galalite) and finally to completely synthetic molecules (e.g., bakelite, epoxy, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene).
Here’s a good article defining polymers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer
This one has the history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastics
Human brain’s capacity for making connections between cause and effect.
Mostly what is called a ‘stroke of genius’ is someone making a logical leap of deduction.