Computer graphics representation of a section of Nylon 66, a plastic polymer. Plastics are polymers made up from a small number of raw materials, many of which derive from hydrocarbons. Nylon was first made by the American chemist Wallace Carothers, who was trying to make synthetic fibrous materials by reacting together monomers (the sub-units of a polymer) which would form similar bonds to those found in proteins. The original nylon was a long- chain polymer with hydrocarbon groupings of six carbon atoms linked by amide bonds, designated nylon 66. Colour coding: green = carbon atoms, white = hydrogen atoms, blue = nitrogen atoms and red = oxygen atoms.