POLYMERS

(Some of this is paraphrased and quoted from the websites listed under Sources)

Polymers are in just about everything: Food, your body, rubber, plastic, etc. Even heart valve replacements are made from polymers, along with fighter plane windshields, substitutes for wood, pipes, and a lot more. Paper is made from celluloise, a naturally occuring polymer in plants.

Polymers have been used since the 1500s. British explorers believe that the Mayans were the first people to use polymers: Young Mayan children would play with rubber balls made from rubber trees. The rubber is, of course, a polymer. More and more people later discover polymers and begin making synthetic things out of them. In 1839 vulcanization was Charles Goodyear (familiar name, anybody?). Goodyear discovered that sulfur and a natural rubber and heating them to 270 degrees farenheit. After it's been heated, the resulting polmeric substance

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer

http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/polymers.htm

http://matse1.mse.uiuc.edu/polymers/polymers.html