Plastics are polymers, long chainlike molecules composed of simpler units known as monomers.
From Saran wrap to foam cups, polymers are normally insulating materials. But in the 1970s, Shirakawa, finding a new way to make the polymer polyacetylene, accidentally added 1,000 times too much catalyst. The three studied the properties of the material. When they added iodine, the polymer's electrical conductivity shot up by several million times. The three researchers made discoveries in one type of communication, known as slow synaptic transmission, involving chemical signals that alter nerve cell function for periods ranging from seconds to hours.