There are already vast numbers of reviews, monographs, edited collections, conference proceedings, and web pages on polymer diffusion, light scattering, electrophoresis, rheology, and almost every topic I cover, other than optical probe diffusion.Why does the world need another book about polymers in solution?

On one hand, the chosen topic has reached a certain degree of maturity. Over the past decade the spate of new research papers on polymer dynamics has greatly slackened, so in the half-decade I needed to write this volume the first-written chapters did not date badly.On the other hand, there are some radically new methods and results whose significance for polymer physics does not seem to be widely recognized.

What do I offer that has not been said many times before?

First and foremost, my focus is phenomenology. There are bits of theoretical discussion hither and thither throughout the volume, but most chapters discuss experiment. If you want to read about models for polymer motion or the formal basis of particular experimental methods, you must for the most part look elsewhere. Except for light scattering spectroscopy, I give very little background on experimental methods and interpretation. The extremely extensive theoretical literature on polymer dynamics in solution is not reviewed. For such reviews see, for example, Graessley(1), Tirrell(2), Pearson(3), Skolnick and Kolinski(4), Lodge, et al.(5), and (more recently but less directly) McLeish(6). Recent papers by Schweizer and collaborators include extensive background references(7–9).