ABSTRACT
Pulp and paper are human necessities that are used daily by everybody. They are, however, not regarded as high-technology products mainly because they are cheap and have been used globally for centuries. In fact, pulping and papermaking require scientific knowledge and technical know-how from several technological areas before final products such as newspapers, weekly magazines, various tissues, or packages reach consumers. Knowledge and skills of wood fibermorphology, pulping and papermaking chemistry, process technology including process control, and modern information technology are required for the production of particular pulps and high-quality papers. In addition, as one colleague once pointed out, it seems that fibers do not always follow the common laws of gases, liquids, and solids, but rather act as an individual ‘‘fourth state,’’ which would call upon common sense.
