Nobel chemist who discovered conductive plastics dies at 90

Hideki Shirakawa, the Japanese chemist who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering and developing electrically conductive polymers, has died at 90. He died Aug. 24 at a hospital in Yokohama, with reports citing metastatic liver cancer and cancer of unknown primary origin. His research overturned the belief that plastics could not conduct electricity and helped launch polymer electronics, enabling flexible technologies used in products such as solar cells and mobile-phone screens. Shirakawa later became a professor at the University of Tsukuba, advised Japan on science policy and promoted science education for children.