4 September 12

The element carbon exists in nature in many different forms, including coal, diamond, and graphite. In one of its most amazing allotropes, sixty carbon atoms are bonded in a hollow-spherical framework of pentagons and hexagons, like the surface geometry of a soccer ball. On this date in 1985, organic chemists first synthesized this substance, which they nicknamed "Buckminsterfullerene" because its structure resembles the geodesic domes designed by Buckminster Fuller. Today's tie has cycles of black circles for Buckminsterfullerene.



Molecular structure of Buckminsterfullerene: