Implications of a Landmark Work. Paul Flory's "Statistical Mechanics of Chain Molecules" continues to provide crucial guidance for contemporary efforts to understand, manipulate, and design materials and biomolecular systems. Accurate modeling of polymer conformations has facilitated molecular-level design of materials with specific properties or biological functions. This work presents the history behind Flory's book and provides examples of establishing realistic polymer structure property relations made possible by its lessons. Researchers in basic and applied polymer research will find these chapters useful.