Contents -- Foreword by P.G. de Gennes -- From the Reviews of the First Edition -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: Physics in the World of Giant Molecules -- 2. What Does a Polymer Molecule Look Like? -- 2.1 Polymers are Long Molecular Chains -- 2.2 Flexibility of Polymer Chains -- 2.3 Flexibility Mechanisms -- 2.4 A "Portrait" of a Polymer Chain -- 2.5 Heteropolymers, Branched Polymers, and Charged Polymers -- 2.5.1 Heteropolymers -- 2.5.2 Branched Polymers -- 2.5.3 Charged Polymers -- 2.6 Ring Macromolecules and Topological Effects -- 3. How are Polymers Made -- 3.1 Polymerization -- 3.2 Polycondensation -- 3.3 Catalysts for Polymer Synthesis -- 3.4 Polydispersity, Living Polymerization -- 3.5 Branched Polymers -- 4. What Kinds of Polymer Substances are There? -- 4.1 "Traditional" States of Matter and Polymers -- 4.2 Possible States of Polymer Substances -- 4.3 Plastics -- 4.4 Polymeric Fibers -- 4.5 Polymeric Liquid Crystals and Super-Strong Fibers -- 4.6 Polymer Solutions -- 4.7 Polymer Blends and Block-Copolymers -- 4.8 Ionomers and Associating Polymers -- 4.9 Conductive Polymers -- 5. Polymers in Nature -- 5.1 A Few Words about Water and the Love or Fear of it -- 5.2 Head-and-Tail Molecules -- 5.3 Molecular Biology and Molecular Architecture -- 5.4 Molecular Machines: Proteins, RNA, and DNA -- 5.5 The Chemical Structure of Proteins, DNA and RNA -- 5.5.1 Proteins -- 5.5.2 Nucleic Acids -- 5.6 Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Structures of Biopolymers -- 5.6.1 Primary Structures: Sequences -- 5.6.2 DNA Methylation -- 5.6.3 Secondary Structures -- 5.6.4 Tertiary Structures -- 5.7 Globular Protein Enzymes -- 5.8 Molecular Motors -- 5.9 Physics and Biology -- Color Figures for Chapters 1-5 -- 6. The Mathematics of a Simple Polymer Coil -- 6.1 Mathematics in Physics -- 6.2 Analogy Between a Polymer Chain and Brownian Motion.

6.3 The Size of a Polymer Coil -- 6.4 Derivation of the "Square Root" Law -- 6.5 Persistence Length and Kuhn Segment -- 6.6 The Density of a Polymer Coil and Concentration Ranges of a Polymer Solution -- 6.7 The Gaussian Distribution -- 7. The Physics of High Elasticity -- 7.1 Columbus Discovered . . . Natural Rubber -- 7.2 High Elasticity -- 7.3 The Discovery of Vulcanization -- 7.4 Synthetic Rubber -- 7.5 High Elasticity and Stretching of an Individual Polymer Chain -- 7.6 Entropy -- 7.7 Entropic Elasticity of an Ideal Gas -- 7.8 Free Energy -- 7.9 Entropic Elasticity of a Polymer Chain -- 7.10 Entropic Elasticity of a Polymer Network -- 7.11 The Guch-Joule Effect and Thermal Aspects of Rubber Deformation -- 7.12 Single Chain Stretching Revisited: Worm-Like Chain Model and dsDNA -- 7.12.1 Strong Stretching of a Chain is akin to its Con nement in a Narrow Tube -- 7.12.2 Strong Stretching of a Freely-Jointed Chain -- 7.12.3 Strong Stretching of a Worm-Like Chain -- 7.12.4 Force Spectroscopy -- 8. The Problem of Excluded Volume -- 8.1 Linear Memory and Volume Interactions -- 8.2 Four Forces in Molecular World -- Scales and Units -- 8.3 Excluded Volume - Formulating the Problem -- 8.4 The Density of a Coil and Collisions of Monomer Units -- 8.5 Good and Bad Solvents, and Conditions -- 8.6 The Swelling of a Polymer Coil in a Good Solvent -- 8.7 The Excluded Volume E ect in a Semi-Dilute Solution -- 8.8 The Near Immiscibility of Polymer Blends -- 9. Coils and Globules -- 9.1 What is a Coil-Globule Transition? -- 9.2 The Free Energy of a Globule -- 9.3 The Energy of Monomer Interactions -- 9.4 The Entropy Contribution -- 9.5 The Swelling Coefficient -- 9.6 The Coil-Globule Transition -- 9.7 Pre-Transitional Swelling -- 9.8 Experimental Observation of the Coil-Globule Transition -- 9.9 Dynamics of the Coil-Globule Transition -- 9.10 Some Generalizations.

9.11 The Collapse of Polymer Networks -- 9.12 The Globular State of the DNA Double Helix -- 9.13 Why do We Call Them Globules? -- 9.14 What is the Order of Coil-Globule Transition -- 10. Globular Proteins and Folding -- 10.1 Anfinsen's Experiment: Renaturation -- 10.2 Aperiodic Crystal or Equilibrated Glass? -- 10.3 Levinthal's Paradox -- 10.4 Denaturation and Renaturation are Sharp Cooperative Transitions, with Latent Heat -- 10.5 Random Sequence Heteropolymers are Not Protein-Like, for They Have No Latent Heat -- 10.6 Selected Sequences -- 10.7 Memorizing (and Confusing) More Than One Conformation -- 10.8 Landscapes and Funnels -- 10.9 Nucleation, and the Resolution of Levinthal's Paradox -- 10.10 In vivo, in vitro, in virtuo -- 10.11 Do We Understand Protein Folding? -- 10.12 Wooden Toy -- Color Figures for Chapters 6-10 -- 11. To Knot or Not to Knot -- 11.1 Knots in Physics: What are Atoms? -- 11.2 Table of Knots -- 11.3 Are Knots Common? -- 11.4 Knots in DNA -- 11.5 Plectonemic DNA and Topological Enzymes -- 11.6 Knots in Proteins -- 12. Dynamics of Polymer Fluids -- 12.1 Viscosity -- 12.2 Viscoelasticity -- 12.3 The Reptation Model -- 12.4 The Longest Relaxation Time -- 12.5 Young's Modulus of a Network of E ective Cross-links -- 12.6 The Tube -- 12.7 The Dependence of the Longest Relaxation Time on the Chain Length -- 12.8 The Viscosity of a Polymer Melt and the Self-Diffusion Coefficient -- 12.9 Experimental Tests of the Theory of Reptation -- 12.10 Reptation Theory and the Gel-Electrophoresis of DNA -- 12.11 The Theory of Reptation and the Gel E ect During Polymerization -- 13. The Mathematics of Complicated Polymer Structures: Fractals -- 13.1 A Bit More About Maths in Physics: How Does a Physicist Determine the Dimensionality of a Space? -- 13.2 Deterministic Fractals, or How to Draw Entertaining Patterns -- 13.3 Self-Similarity.

13.4 Natural Fractals -- 13.5 Simple Polymer Fractals -- 13.6 Why Worry About Fractals? (What the Two Authors Said to Each Other One Day) -- 13.7 Why Is Self-Similarity Described by Power Laws, and What Use Can Be Made of This in Polymer Physics? -- 13.8 Other Fractals in Polymers, and Polymers in Fractals -- 13.9 Geometry and Classification -- Color Figures for Chapters 11-13 -- 14. Polymers, Evolution, and the Origin of Life -- 14.1 Why Evolution in a Book on Polymers? -- 14.2 Molecular Phenomenology of Evolution -- 14.2.1 Genealogic Tree and its Root: LUCA -- 14.2.2 Further Observations -- 14.2.3 Power Laws -- 14.2.4 Statistics of Sequences -- 14.2.5 Meaningful and Meaningless, Random and Fractal -- 14.3 Entropy and Evolution -- 14.3.1 Life in Evolving Universe -- 14.3.2 Life and the Second Law of Thermodynamics -- 14.3.3 Chemical Evolution on the Early Earth -- 14.3.4 Primary Polymerization -- 14.3.5 Memorizing of a Random Choice -- 14.3.6 Right and Left-Handed Symmetry in Nature -- 14.3.7 QWERTY -- 14.3.8 Emergence of Novel Information -- 14.4 Conclusion -- List of Suggested Further Reading -- Index.