Should you happen to be in Florida (US), tomorrow, Feb. 1, 2014 at 1 pm, the Orlando Science Center is offering an opportunity to see and listen to a Nobel-prizewinning pioneer in the field of nanotechnology, Dr. Sir Harold Kroto. From a Jan. 30, 2014 news item in the Orlando Sentinel (Note: Links have been removed),
It’s time to get small. Nobel Prize winner and Florida State University professor Harold Kroto (…) will talk about his work in chemistry and buckminsterfullerene, a form of pure carbon better known as “buckyballs,” at Orlando Science Center. His co-discovery of buckyballs landed him the Nobel, and that helped open up the field of nanotechnology. His talk dovetails with the science center’s newest traveling exhibit, “Zoom Into Nano,” which explores how scientists make too-tiny-to-be-seen objects. Also at the museum: the National Geographic film “Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D.”
The Kroto event page on the Orlando Science Center website offers this information about the talk,
Orlando Science Center hosts Dr. Sir Harold Kroto, co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry, for a special talk about his work in the field entitled “Some Secrets of Outer Space Uncovered by Discoveries in NanoSpace.” His co-discovery of buckyballs is credited for opening up the study of nanotechnology — the manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular and supramolecular scale.
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Dr. Kroto was the co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work that led to the discovery of buckminsterfullerene, a form of pure carbon better known as “buckyballs,” and is a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Florida State University.
The event page includes this general description of how and why buckminsterfullerenes were discovered,
Science was born out of curiosity, not out of expedience and it is still true today that many major breakthroughs are made by the openly curious who generally uncover breakthroughs which those with more focused attitudes tend to overlook. With the development of radiotelescopes during the last half of the 20th Century, the very cold interstellar medium was found to be a veritable Pandora’s Box, full to the brim with dust particles and fascinating exotic molecules as well as some highly puzzling material responsible for a plethora of as yet unidentified optical features.
Particularly fascinating, curious and crucial has been the role that the element carbon has played in almost every aspect of the development of our understanding of both the physical and natural sciences. A surprise that the element had up its sleeve was the existence of C60, Buckminsterfullerene, the third well-defined form of carbon – the other two being graphite and diamond. Follow-up work from the C60 discovery also led to the re-discovery of the carbon nanotubes which promise paradigm shifting advances in materials engineering at nanoscale dimensions. So curiosity about the chemistry that occurs in exameter sized objects such as Giant Molecular Clouds in space some with diameters as large as 100ly (~1018 m*) led to the discovery of an object ca 1027 times smaller and which has become an iconic symbol of nanotechnology ie the science of structures at nanoscale (ca 10-9m) dimensions.
Admission to the science center is $19US ($13 for ages 3-11) and includes this special presentation.