Comments on Shirakawa’s Response

As both an active researcher in the synthesis of conjugated materials and a chemist-historian that has spent the last decade attempting to detail and clarify the history of conjugated and conducting polymers, I am overjoyed that Prof. Shirakawa has elected to provide additional personal details relating to the discovery and development of polyacetylene films. Shirakawa has provided this material in response to my most recent Substantia paper that details newly revealed accounts by Hyung Chick Pyun (1926-2018), who was a visiting Korean scientist that carried out the initial experiment that led to these films. This material is critical to advance our understanding of this important historical event.