Perfect symmetry : the accidental discovery of buckminsterfullerene
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Bibliographic Information
Perfect symmetry : the accidental discovery of buckminsterfullerene
Oxford University Press, 1996
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In 1966, it was an amusing idea. In September 1985, it was a ball of paper and sticky tape, the result of six days of intense scientific discussion and one moment of inspiration. Five years later it was finally real: a perfectly symmetrical soccer-ball shaped molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms called buckminsterfullerene. This new molecule - one of a large family of carbon cage molecules called "fullerenes" - represents a new form of carbon in addition to diamond and graphite. Its accidental discovery has revolutionised our understanding of this most familiar of all elements. It has heralded a new chemistry, a new range of high-temperature superconductors and some marvellous new concepts in the architecture of large carbon structures. Carbon will never be the same again. In "Perfect Symmetry" , prize-winning science writer Jim Baggott tells the story of the accidental discovery of buckminsterfullerene, from its origins in the cold chemistry of interstellar clouds to the development of the fast-growing field of fullerence science. It is a story full of surprises.
Table of Contents
- Part I - From space to symmetry
- The last great problem in astronomy
- Some kind of Junk
- Welcome to the machine
- The Lone Ranger
- Buckminsterfullerene
- Part II - From symmetry to substance
- Form and geometry
- The fullerene zoo
- Pathological science
- A crazy idea
- Fullerite
- The one line proof
- There's lots of it to go around
- Part III - From substance to science
- Chemistry of the spheres
- Superconducting fullerides
- Shifting the carbon paradigm
- Still the last great problem in astronomy. Appendix: Molecular spectroscopy - windows on the microworld.
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