The Wonder of Life in Its Chemical Aspect

Hermann Staudinger was deeply interested in both macromolecular chemistry and biology. This chapter reviews briefly the shared origins of studies of natural and synthetic polymers, the subsequent divergence of the two fields, and their more recent convergence, made possible by the development of recombinant DNA methodology. The use of recombinant DNA technology to prepare well-defined macromolecular materials is discussed, along with the use of non-canonical amino acids as probes of protein synthesis in complex cellular systems.