Carbon-60

It's been around as long as there has been carbon, but this most elegant of atomic structures was discovered only a few years ago at Rice University, earning the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  Since then many fullerenes (the family is named after Buckminster Fuller) have been discovered, both artificially created and naturally occurring, and the consequences are still unfolding.

This sculpture is a 3D model laser-etched into an optically perfect crystal.  It is 2" square by 3 1/8" tall, making a handy paperweight that weighs a little over a pound.

Too big?  Buckyball keychains are here.

Time Capsules

The scientific possibilities implied by fullerenes are too many to list here, as their structural, chemical, magnetic and electrical properties are unusual in every way.  Also shown in this crystal is a buckytube: the same structure elongated into a long, strong, tubular network. The ball-in-a-tube, is possible and has been produced, being known to its friends as a "bucky peapod".

One interesting thing that a C-60 ball can do is to contain an atom or small molecule inside the sphere.  It's well known that this points towards new types of battery, lubricant, and superconductor, but it also has more exotic consequences.  For instance, geologists are now looking for fossil isotope concentrations preserved inside ancient buckyballs, which could tell us more about meteorite impacts in earlier epochs.

The Smallest Soccer Ball

An excellent view of the most geometrically exciting molecule we are ever likely to lay eyes on.