The course of chemical reactions involving radical pairs may depend on occurrence and orientation of nuclear spins in the pairs. The influence of nuclear spins is maximized when the radical pairs are confined to a space that serves as a cage that allows a certain degree of independent diffusional and rotational motion of the partners of the pair but that also encourages reencounters of the partners within a period which allows the nuclear spins to operate on the odd electron spins of the pair. Under the proper conditions, the nuclear spins can induce intersystem crossing between triplet and singlet states of radical pairs. It is shown that this dependence ofintersystem crossing on nuclear spin leads to a magnetic isotope effect on the chemistry of radical pairs which provides a means of separating isotopes. on the basis of nuclear spins rather than nuclear masses and also leads to a magnetic field effect on the chemistry of radical pairs which provides a means of influencing the course of polymerization by the application of weak magnetic fields. PHYSICAL MODEL OF NUCLEAR SPIN "Spin" is the term used to describe an intrinsic and characteristic property associated with the angular momentum of a particle. A physical model ofspin is conveniently generated by the supposition that this property is the angular momentum that arises from a body rotating about its own axis. This classical model allows recognition of most of the important characteristics of quantum mechanical spin. For example, it provides an understanding of why charged particles with spin.possess an intrinsic magnetic moment and why charged particles without spin do not possess an intrinsic magnetic moment (1, 2) ( Fig. .1).The magnitude of the spin angular momentum of a particle is uniquely determined by the spin quantum number which may be a positive integral or half-integral number that is characteristic of the particle. For example, the value of the electronic spin quantum number(s) for an electron is +1/2. This value pertains whatever the state of the electron. On the other ,hand, the value of the nuclear spin quantum number (f) depends on the nucleus. Indeed, some nuclei (e.g., 12C, 160, 180) do not possess spin (f = 0), whereas others possess half-integral values (e.g.,. for 170 f = 5/2, for 1H f = 1/2, and for`3C e = 1/2) or integral values (e.g., for 2H e = 1). For simplicity, I shall consider some of the consequences of a simple model of spin for.a particle with spin quantum number of + 1/2.According to the rules of quantum mechanics, the spin angular momentum of a rotating body is quantized and may take up only a discrete set of orientations with respect to any arbitrarily selected axis (Fig. 2). With the z axis as a frame of reference, the allowed-orientations for a spin of +1/2 are "up" (a spin) and "down" (A spin). Quantum mechanics allows that only one axial component ofthe spin angular momentum vector can be specified. We shall arbitrarily select this component to be projected on the z axis. The specific orientation (termed the...