HOUSTON (Reuters) - Rice University professor Richard Smalley, who shared a 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the discovery of "buckyballs," has died of cancer at the age of 62

Buckyballs, short for buckminsterfullerenes, are a form of carbon that has 60 atoms arranged in a hollow sphere and whose discovery in 1985 opened the way for the development of the field of nanotechnology.

An interesting account of this discovery is The Most Beautiful Molecule: The Discovery of the Buckyball by Hugh Aldersey-Williams.

Thanks for passing along the sad news.



I can't help commenting that one of the professional reviewers of the book linked to didn't learn much from the book. Contrary to Booklist's review, fullerenes do not necessarily have 60 carbon atoms.

It's been several years since I read the book, so I don't remember details. But I know it talks about C-70 and larger spheroidal forms besides the C-60 "soccer ball", as well as cylinders ("nanotubes").

I remember that the researchers were fixated on fitting hexagons onto a sphere (which apparently is mathematically impossible) until they had the "aha" moment of realization that pentagons have to figure into the structure as well.