Today is the fortieth anniversary of the discovery of my favorite molecule — buckminsterfullerene. It will come as no surprise to anyone that this esteemed molecule is named for the famous architect, due to its geodesic dome-like structure.
Buckminsterfullerene is a beautiful molecule in many ways, and that fact that it occurs in nature has makes me very happy. It consists of 60 carbon atoms, arranged in a semi-regular polyhedron.
That 32 sided polyhedron is called a truncated icosahedron, which also happens to be my favorite polyhedron. Which is one reason that I love buckminsterfullerene.
As it happens, the locations of the carbon atoms are identical to the locations of the 60 corners of the panels of a soccer ball. So if you look at a soccer ball (which consists of 20 hexagons plus 12 pentagons), you are basically looking at a buckminsterfullerene molecule.
Except that the soccer ball is bigger. A soccer ball is about 22.5 centimeters in diameter, whereas a buckminsterfullerene molecule is about one nanometer in diameter.
Which makes the soccer ball more than 200 million times bigger. Also, you cannot kick a molecule of buckminsterfullerene.