Although polymers are regarded as electrical insulators, it was discovered that they can be made to conduct electricity. This discovery has opened vast new practical and theoretical areas for exploration by physicists and chemists. Research studies with these conducting polymers and charge-transfer salts as well as possible applications are…

Describes the function of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Its establishment and the interests of some of the researchers there, are discussed. (SA)