Content: PREFACE ; AN OVERVIEW OF DEGRADABLE POLYMERS ; INTRODUCTION ; 1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF DEGRADABLE AND RENEWABLE POLYMERS AND ; MATERIALS ; KISHAN KHEMANI AND CARMEN SCHOLZ ; PROTOCOLS, DRIVERS, STANDARDS, AND TOOLS ; 2. BIOBASED & BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS: RATIONALE, DRIVERS, AND TECHNOLOGY ; EXEMPLARS ; RAMANI NARAYAN ; 3. BIODEGRADATION TESTING PROTOCOLS ; B. DE WILDE ; 4. LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA) AND DEGRADABLE POLYMERS ; TIM GRANT ; 5. POLYMER DEGRADATION AS A TOOL TO STUDY POLYELECTROLYTE COMPLEX ; FORMATION AND STABILITY ; L. LECLERCQ, M. BOUSTTA, AND M. VERT ; 6. FACTORS CONTROLLING THE RATE OF PHOTODEGRADATION IN POLYMERS ; BEVIN C. DAGLEN AND DAVID R. TYLER ; NATURAL BIOBASED POLYMERS ; 7. STARCH IN POLYMERS TECHNOLOGY ; C. BASTIOLI, P. MAGISTRALI, AND S. GESTI GARCIA ; 8. BIOPLASTICS FROM WASTE MATERIALS AND LOW-VALUE BYPRODUCTS ; HELAN XU AND YIQI YANG ; 9. RECENT ADVANCES IN POLYHYDROXYALKANOATE BIOSYNTHESIS IN ESCHERICHIA ; COLI ; RYAN C. TAPPEL AND CHRISTOPHER T. NOMURA ; 10. BACTERIAL POLY(?-HYDROXYBUTYRATE): HYDROPHILIZED AND COLORED ; K. BUSSE, H. BUDDE, C. SCHOLZ, AND J. KRESSLER ; 11. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES, STRUCTURE ANALYSIS, AND ENZYMATIC DEGRADATION OF ; POLY[(R)-3-HYDROXYBUTYRATE-CO-(R)-3-HYDROXYVALERATE] FILMS AND FIBERS ; TOSHIHISA TANAKA AND TADAHISA IWATA ; 12. HARNESSING BIOPOLYESTERS IN THE DESIGN OF FUNCTIONAL AND NANOSTRUCTURED ; ARCHITECTURES ; DANIEL GRANDE, ESTELLE RENARD, JULIEN BABINOT, JULIEN RAMIER, AND VALERIE LANGLOIS ; 13. BIODEGRADABLE AGRICULTURAL MULCHES DERIVED FROM BIOPOLYMERS ; DOUGLAS G. HAYES, SATHISKUMAR DHARMALINGAM, LARRY C. WADSWORTH, ; KAREN K. LEONAS, CAROL MILES, AND DEBRA A. INGLIS ; 14. PLANT OIL-BASED CURING AGENTS FOR EPOXIES ; KUN HUANG, MEI LI, SHOUHAI LI, JIANLING XIA, AND JINWEN ZHANG ; SYNTHETIC DEGRADABLE POLYMERS ; 15. STRATEGIES IN ALIPHATIC POLYESTER SYNTHESIS FOR BIOMATERIAL AND DRUG ; DELIVERY APPLICATIONS ; ANGELA L. SILVERS, CHIA-CHIH CHANG, BRYAN PARRISH, AND TODD EMRICK ; 16. DEGRADABLE POLY(ETHYLENE OXIDE)-BLOCK-POLYCAPROLACTONE WORM-LIKE ; MICELLES: FROM PHASE TRANSITIONS AND MOLECULAR SIMULATION TO PERSISTENT ; CIRCULATION AND SHRINKING TUMORS ; NURIA SANCHO OLTRA, SHARON M. LOVERDE, TAKAMASA HARADA, ABDULLAH MAHMUD, ; KARTHIKAN RAJAGOPAL, AND DENNIS E. DISCHER ; 17. THERMO-RESPONSIVE GELS: BIODEGRADABLE HYDROGELS FROM ENANTIOMERIC ; COPOLYMERS OF POLY(LACTIDE) AND POLY(ETHYLENE GLYCOL) ; TOMOKO FUJIWARA ; 18. PLA-PEO-PLA HYDROGELS: CHEMICAL STRUCTURE, SELF-ASSEMBLY AND ; MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ; SURITA R. BHATIA AND GREGORY N. TEW ; 19. FUNCTIONAL DEGRADABLE POLYMERIC MATERIALS PREPARED BY ATOM TRANSFER ; RADICAL POLYMERIZATION (ATRP) ; NICOLAY V. TSAREVSKY, KE MIN, NAZEEM M. JAHED, HAIFENG GAO, AND ; KRZYSZTOF MATYJASZEWSKI ; EDITORS' BIOGRAPHIES ; INDEXES ; AUTHOR INDEX ; SUBJECT INDEX