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The science of macromolecules has developed from primitive beginnings to a flourishing field of investigative activities within the comparatively brief span of some forty years. A wealth of knowledge has been acquired and new points of view have illumined various branches of the subject. These advances are the fruits of efforts of many dedicated investigators working in laboratories spread around the world. In a very real sense, I am before you on this occasion as their representative. In these circumstances, the presentation of a lecture of a scope commensurate with the supreme honor the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has bestowed in granting me the Nobel Prize for Chemistry is an insuperable task. Rather than attempt to cover the field comprehensively in keeping with the generous citation by the Royal Academy of Sciences, I have chosen to dwell on a single theme. This theme is central to the growth of ideas and concepts concerning macromolecules and their properties. Implemented by methods that have emerged in recent years, researches along lines I shall attempt to highligh