Ciencias Exactas

QUIMICA

La Molécula del Futuro

ABSTRACT [RESUMEN]

One of the chemical elements most studied by scientists had only two well known allotropes. In 1985 this state of affairs changed unexpectedly. A new form of Carbon was observed by a team of five chemists at the laboratory of the Chemistry Department of Rice University in Houston, Texas. The new member of this illustrious family would become known to the world with the tongue-twisting name of buckminsterfullerene. The story that followed the first announcement of its observation in the spectroscopic logs at Rice, the race to synthesize it, the natural skepticism with which it was first received by the rest of the scientific world, the triumph of its first production; and, the explosive development generated by its promising qualities, are all classical elements of the epic character of all great scientific discoveries.