A Challenge
Imagine this. It is 1964. You are a chemist working in a research laboratory of a major company. Your boss has asked you to find new synthetic polymers. You spend some of your time experimenting with the polymers you and your coworkers have already made, while other times you are busy combining, heating, stirring, and spinning different substances to see what you can create. Because you studied chemistry in college, and because you have worked in this laboratory for a few years, you know your stuff and have fun working with the other chemists.
One day, you combine some substances and heat up your mixture carefully, just as you do every day. But this day, something strange happens. The mixture is cloudy instead of clear. When you stir it, it doesn't look the way you expect. Something clicks in your head, and you rush to find the person in charge of testing new polymers. He isn't at all sure he wants to test this strange glop, but, after talking to him for a long time, you convince him. You're just sure there is something unusual about the substance in your test tube. You are right. When they hear the results of the tests, your colleagues run into your lab, excited and amazed. You have just invented a brand new polymer that weighs very little but is strong and stiff beyond anyone's imagination. A few years later, your discovery is used to make bullet-resistant vests and helmets. Your name and picture are in advertisements and billboards as the woman who saved thousands of lives.
