Buckyballs discoverer led atheist crusade

[rug]

BOB BROCKIE
Last updated 09:15, May 24 2016

British scientist Harry Kroto died last month, a man world famous for discovering "buckyballs".

So what are buckyballs? These are soccer ball-shaped molecules made of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a cage made of interlocking polygons.

When Kroto discovered these molecules in the 1980s he called them "buckminsterfullerenes" to honour Buckminster Fuller, the visionary Canadian architect whose geodesic dome-shaped buildings closely resemble the carbon spheres.

Buckminsterfullerenes quickly became known as buckyballs. Soon after, Kroto found a whole family of other similar cage-like fullerenes with different numbers of carbon atoms.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/80188792/Buckyballs-discoverer-led-atheist-crusade