In the aftermath of an October 2004 gun battle between Israeli defense forces and several Palestinian fighters, an Israeli soldier sits in his jeep behind a layer of shattered safety glass. This kind of "bulletproof" glass is fortified by interior lamination with a layer of polyvinyl butyral (PVB), an important synthetic polymer. Read on for more examples of how we depend on polymers for our everyday safety, comfort and convenience.
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A worker in this Thai factory prepares to ship batches of rubber parts. Polymers are molecules that can grow very large because they are made up of identical repeating components, like links in a chain. For hundreds of years, people have been aware of natural polymers like latex and starch, but the 20th century has seen these and synthetic polymers become a cornerstone of consumer products and technology. Next, you'll see an impressive rubber creation.
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In February 1942, a worker in an Ohio factory tweaks one of the 3,646-pound (1,654-kilogram) tires that the factory has produced to be fitted on massive earth mover vehicles. Even this rubber monstrosity is made up of simple polymers. Alongside plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene, rubber is one of the most important polymers in American industry.
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People do all sorts of stuff with rubber, like build 8,200-pound (3,719-kilogram) rubber band balls in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record. Joel Waul of Lauderhill, Fla., had achieved this mass by October of 2009, and the ball has grown since. Click ahead to see a problem with the disposal of waste rubber.
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Tire disposal is a major concern in the waste management sector, as old tires are some of the most durable and voluminous waste products of human technology. However, the polymer nature of a standard rubber tire may provide a solution to the problem. Rubber is highly adaptable, and as such it can be shredded and recycled for various uses, such as filler material. Next, you'll see where natural rubber comes from.
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Above, a woman drives her motorcycle along the pathway through a rubber plantation in Chanthaburi, Thailand. Natural rubber is a polymer -- specifically, an elastomer -- made from the latex secreted by trees like the ones shown here. To see how the latex is collected, click ahead.
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This rubber plantation in Guatemala shows the typical collection method for natural latex. Cultivators slash the rubber tree at an angle, allowing the tree's sap to drip along a ridge into a collection bucket. Workers then bring the sap in so the latex can be extracted, processed and optimized for industrial use. Click ahead to see another polymer of the natural world.
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Two employees of the Holmes Gin Company collect some cotton that overflowed from the gin machine. Cotton is composed almost entirely of a single organic polymer called cellulose, which forms the cell walls of plant matter. Cellulose is one of the most abundant life-based polymers found on the planet, and in addition to cotton, it is found in wood and other various plant fibers.
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The cellulose found in wood has dozens of industrial uses. Commercial paper, of course, comes from wood pulp, but cellulose also can be processed into cellophane and various adhesives. Cellulose is also an important form of energy, for biomass sources such as good old-fashioned wood burning, as well as newer methods, like the production of cellulosic ethanol. Click ahead to see PVC at work.
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A polymer called polyvinyl chloride, usually abbreviated as PVC, has (among its many uses) replaced much of the world's older metal plumbing and irrigation piping. Above, an Australian man is in the middle of laying around 2 kilometers (about 1.24 miles) of PVC piping, which will connect an underground well to a neighboring watering station. In 2004, almost half of all water pipes in North America were made of PVC. Next, you'll see a novel use for nylon fabric.
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Nylon is the name for a cheap and versatile group of synthetic polymers that you probably encounter every day. While nylon is often used to make ropes, tarps and other durable and waterproof pieces of equipment, it is also ideal for containing the excited gas that keeps a hot air balloon in flight.
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While most people know that PTFE can provide nonstick coating for kitchenware and other appliances, few people know that the Jeppesen Terminal at the Denver International Airport features a fiberglass roof coated in a layer of Teflon for environmental protection and energy efficiency. Check out the next page to see this slippery polymer up close.
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This is what polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) looks like when viewed under a scanning electron microscope, with color added. Note the repetitive structure produced by the long chains of identical molecules. This alien landscape is the temporary residence of millions of fried eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches around the world. Next, you'll see a common consumer plastic.
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These Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle PEZ dispensers form an exhibit at the Easton Museum of PEZ Dispensers in Easton, Pa. Because plastic polymers like polypropylene and polyethylene are so cheap, versatile and durable, they are used to form the structural elements of many lower-cost consumer products, such as food containers and children's toys. Next, you'll see a polymer that can help fight forest fires.
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This is Dyn-o-gel -- a hydrated polymer powder that can be used to contain the spread of wildfire. Peter Cordani and J.D. Dutton, pictured with their product in 2002, produce this non-toxic, flame-retardant substance at their headquarters in Riviera Beach, Fla. According to its creators, the material can be used to fireproof unburned areas of forest without causing significant damage to the affected plant life. Click ahead to see some strange but beautiful polymer art.
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Not all of the uses of polymers lie in consumer production. What's seen above is a 1983 creation called "Surrounded Islands" by an art duo known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The artists fitted each of these small islands in Florida's Biscayne Bay with floating pink sheets made of polypropylene. Click over to the next page to see more polymer art.
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Polyester is an important class of versatile polymers, often used in clothing and other consumer products. Here, polyester casts take the shapes of fallen WWI-era Marines, designed for display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps's World War I gallery, which opened in 2010. Next, you'll see another work of polyester art.
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This item is shown on exhibit in London in 2008, as part of a gallery called "Psycho Buildings, Artists Take on Architecture." Like the casts in the previous photo, this piece of artwork, known as "Staircase -V, 2008," designed by the artist Doh Ho Suh, makes use of polyester as one of its major ingredients.
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Of course most people don't recognize polyester primarily as an art supply. This versatile polymer class is best known as the key ingredient in some of the snappiest clothes of the 1960s and '70s, like the suit shown above. On the next page, see how polymers could help a person replace something lost.
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Photographed in 2002, this polymer tooth scaffold helped researchers at the Forsythe Institute in Boston, Mass., make progress toward the goal of organic tooth replacement. When used in conjunction with extracted animal dentin and enamel, this polymer structure could help people replace lost teeth -- not with fake teeth, but with real, biological teeth grown on scaffolds like this one.
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Like Teflon, Styrofoam is a trade name that has come to be used as the general term for a material. This material is a form of extruded polystyrene foam -- an industrially produced polymer. Though we often think of polystyrene foam in the context of disposable coffee cups or packaging material, Dow Chemical originally developed the substance for the purposes of insulation. Above, workers attach Styrofoam sheets of insulation to the exterior of a new house in Berlin.
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A polymer called Bakelite was one of the world's first entirely synthetic materials, and in 2007, the Science Museum in London held a celebration called "100 Years of Plastic" that coincided with the 100th anniversary of Bakelite's invention. This photo shows a sculpture made of layers of synthetic sheet materials such as carpet and vinyl. Click ahead to see a classic Bakelite appliance.
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This Bakelite telephone was shown at the 100 Years of Plastic exhibit of London's Science Museum in 2007. Bakelite was invented by a Belgian chemist named Leo Baekeland, and at the time it was a revolutionary development in that it was a plastic that could be molded to any shape but became rigid and firm after processing. Next, you'll see a photo of Bakelite innovation taken to the extreme.
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This car, which was made of glass fiber and Bakelite polyester, is shown modeling at a British plastics exposition in 1953. The Bakelite car never made it as a consumer product, but most cars of today still employ many kinds of polymer plastics and resins.
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