THE ROLE OF TRANSPORT PHENOMENA IN POLYMER SCIENCE

Very often a contrast is constructed between so-called applied researc h and basic research. According to the present author, not only is bas ic knowledge in the usual sense (in physics, chemistry, etc.) of impor tance for engineers. The inverse situation can also occur. Branches of science, which typically emerged from technological problems, can bec ome of particular interest for the solution of fundamental problems. O ne can almost say that many problems of a fundamental nature have not been solved because of a lack of feeling for technical problems at the hand of the pertinent expert. For many years the author has pointed t o relations between, say, the measurement of flow birefringence of dil ute polymer solutions (for the purpose of polymer characterization), p olymer melt processing, and aspects of crystallization from polymer me lts.