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While the plastics century brought convenience and cost-effectiveness, it also created staggering environmental problems. Many plastics are made of nonrenewable resources. And plastic packaging was designed to be single-use, but some plastics take centuries to decompose, creating a huge build up of waste. This century we’ll have to concentrate our innovations on addressing those problems— by reducing plastic use, developing biodegradable plastics, and finding new ways to recycle existing plastic.

Afterwards, plastic manufacturing companies that had sprung up during wartime turned their attention to consumer products. Plastics began to replace other materials like wood, glass, and fabric in furniture, clothing, shoes, televisions, and radios. Versatile plastics opened up possibilities for packaging— mainly designed to keep food and other products fresh for longer. Suddenly, there were plastic garbage bags, stretchy plastic wrap, squeezable plastic bottles, takeaway cartons, and plastic containers for fruit, vegetables, and meat. Within just a few decades, this multifaceted material ushered in what became known as the “plastics century.”

And in the 1930s nylon took centre stage— a polymer designed to mimic silk, but with many times its strength. Starting in 1933, polyethylene became one of the most versatile plastics, still used today to make everything from grocery bags, to shampoo bottles, to bulletproof vests. New manufacturing technologies accompanied this explosion of materials. The invention of a technique called injection-moulding made it possible to insert melted plastics into molds of any shape, where they would rapidly harden. This created possibilities for products in new varieties and shapes—

Bakelite was much less flammable than celluloid and the raw materials used to make it were more readily available. Bakelite was only the beginning. In the 1920s, researchers first commercially developed polystyrene, a spongy plastic used in insulation. Soon after came polyvinyl chloride, or vinyl, which was flexible yet hardy. Acrylics created transparent, shatter-proof panels that mimicked glass.

But in general, when people refer to plastics, they’re referring to synthetic materials. The unifying feature of these is that they start out soft and malleable and can be molded into a particular shape. Despite taking the prize as the first official plastic, celluloid was highly flammable, which made production risky. So inventors began to hunt for alternatives. In 1907 a chemist combined phenol— a waste product of coal tar— and formaldehyde, creating a hardy new polymer called bakelite.

But it could be tinted and patterned to mimic more expensive materials like coral, tortoiseshell, amber, and mother-of-pearl. He had created what became known as the first plastic. The word ‘plastic’ can describe any material made of polymers, which are just the large molecules consisting of the same repeating subunit. This includes all human-made plastics, as well as many of the materials found in living things.

So in 1863 an American named John Wesley Hyatt took up the challenge. Over the next five years, he invented a new material called celluloid, made from cellulose, a compound found in wood and straw. Hyatt soon discovered celluloid couldn’t solve the billiard ball problem–– the material wasn’t heavy enough and didn’t bounce quite right.

Today, plastics are everywhere. All of this plastic originated from one small object— that isn’t even made of plastic. For centuries, billiard balls were made of ivory from elephant tusks. But when excessive hunting caused elephant populations to decline in the 19th century, billiard balls makers began to look for alternatives, offering huge rewards.

and a way to inexpensively and rapidly produce plastics at scale. Scientists hoped this economical new material would make items that once had been unaffordable accessible to more people. Instead, plastics were pushed into service in World War Two. During the war, plastic production in the United States quadrupled. Soldiers wore new plastic helmet liners and water-resistant vinyl raincoats. Pilots sat in cockpits made of plexiglass, a shatterproof plastic, and relied on parachutes made of resilient nylon.

But the player who would truly upset Russian dominance was not a citizen of another country but an IBM computer called Deep Blue. Chess-playing computers had been developed for decades, but Deep Blue’s triumph over Garry Kasparov in 1997 was the first time a machine had defeated a sitting champion.

But the emergence of formal competitive play in the late 19th century meant that strategic calculation would eventually trump dramatic flair. And with the rise of international competition, chess took on a new geopolitical importance. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union devoted great resources to cultivating chess talent, dominating the championships for the rest of the century.

Chess theory was born. With the Enlightenment era, the game moved from royal courts to coffeehouses. Chess was now seen as an expression of creativity, encouraging bold moves and dramatic plays. This "Romantic" style reached its peak in the Immortal Game of 1851, where Adolf Anderssen managed a checkmate after sacrificing his queen and both rooks.

Moralists cautioned against devoting oo much time to them, ith chess even being briefly anned in France. et the game proliferated, nd the 15th century saw it cohering into he form we know today. he relatively weak piece of advisor was ecast as the more powerful queen– perhaps inspired by the recent surge of strong female leaders. This change accelerated the game’s pace, and as other rules were popularized, treatises analyzing common openings and endgames appeared.

And in Japanese shogi, captured pieces could be used by the opposing player. But it was in Europe that chess began to take on its modern form. By 1000 AD, the game had become part of courtly education. Chess was used as an allegory for different social classes performing their proper roles, and the pieces were re-interpreted in their new context. At the same time, the Church remained suspicious of games.

And historian al-Mas’udi considered the game a testament to human free will compared to games of chance. Medieval trade along the Silk Road carried the game to East and Southeast Asia, where many local variants developed. In China, chess pieces were placed at intersections of board squares rather than inside them, as in the native strategy game Go. The reign of Mongol leader Tamerlane saw an 11x10 board with safe squares called citadels.

After the 7th century Islamic conquest of Persia,chess was introduced to the Arab world.Transcending its role as a tactical simulation,it eventually became a rich source of poetic imagery.Diplomats and courtiers used chess terms to describe political power.Ruling caliphs became avid players themselves.

The game was originally known as chaturanga–a Sanskrit word for "four divisions."But with its spread to Sassanid Persia,it acquired its current name and terminology–"chess," derived from "shah," meaning king, and“checkmate” from "shah mat,"or “the king is helpless.”

While our earliest records of chess are in the 7th century,legend tells that the game’s origins lie a century earlier.Supposedly, when the youngest prince of the Gupta Empire was killed in battle,his brother devised a way of representingthe scene to their grieving mother.Set on the 8x8 ashtapada board used forother popular pastimes,a new game emerged with two key features:different rules for moving different types of pieces,and a single king piece whose fate determined the outcome.

The attacking infantry advances steadily, their elephants already having broken the defensive line.The king tries to retreat, but enemy cavalry flanks him from the rear.Escape is impossible.But this isn’ta real war–nor is it just a game.Over the roughly one-and-a-half millennia of its existence,chess has been known as a tool of military strategy,a metaphor for human affairs, and a benchmark of genius.

That's when another scientist named Rudolph Virchow,stepped in with research showing that cells did come from other cells,research that was actually --hmm ... How to put it? --"borrowed without permission"from a Jewish scientist by the name of Robert Remak,which led to two more feuding scientists.Thus, from teeth gunk to torquing off Newton, crystallization to Schwann cells,the cell theory came to be an important part of biology today.Some things we know about science today may seem boring,but how we came to know them is incredibly fascinating.So if something bores you,dig deeper.It's probably got a really weird story behind it somewhere.

Immediately, he reached out via snail mail,as Twitter had yet to be invented,to other scientists workingin the same field with Schleiden,who got back to him,and the two started working on the beginnings of the cell theory.A bone of contention arose between them.As for the last part of the cell theory --that cells come from preexisting cells --Schleiden didn't exactly subscribe to that thought,as he swore cells came from free-cell formation,where they just kind of spontaneously crystallized into existence.

The first scientist was Matthias Schleiden,a botanist who liked to study plants under a microscope.From his years of studying different plant species, it finally dawned on him that every single plant he had looked at were all made of cells.At the same time,on the other end of Germany was Theodor Schwann,a scientist who not only studied slides of animal cells under the microscope and got a special type of nerve cell named after him,but also invented rebreathers for firefighters,and had a kickin' pair of sideburns.After studying animal cells for a while,he, too, came to the conclusion that all animals were made of cells.

Remember when I said Hookedabbled in many different fields?Well, after Newton published a groundbreaking book on how planets move due to gravity,Hooke made the claim that Newton had been inspired by Hooke's work in physics.Newton, to say the least,did not like that,which sparked a tense relationship between the two that lasted even after Hooke died,as quite a bit of Hooke's research --as well as his only portrait --was ... misplaced, due to Newton.Much of it was rediscovered,thankfully, after Newton's time,but not his portrait,as, sadly, no one knows what Robert Hooke looked like.Fast-forward to the 1800s,where two German scientists discovered something that today we might find rather obvious,but helped tie together what we now know as the cell theory.

Hooke was a guy who really loved all aspects of science,so he dabbled in a little bit of everything, including physics,chemistry and biology.Thus it is Hooke who we can thank for the term "the cell,"as he was looking at a piece of cork under his microscope,and the little chambers he saw reminded him of cells,or the rooms monks slept in in their monasteries.Think college dorm rooms,but without the TVs, computers and really annoying roommates.Hooke was something of an underappreciated scientist of his day --something he brought upon himself,as he made the mistake of locking horns with one of the most famous scientists ever, Sir Isaac Newton.

Yes, you heard right.He actually discovered bacteria by looking at dental scrapings,which, when you keep in mind that people didn't brush their teeth much -- if at all -- back then,he must have had a lovely bunch of bacteria to look at.When he wrote about his discovery,he didn't call them bacteria,as we know them today.But he called them "animalcules,"because they lookedlike little animals to him.While Leeuwenhoek was staring at his teeth gunk,he was also sending letters to a scientific colleague in England,by the name of Robert Hooke.