Perfect Symmetry

This book documents the fascinating story of the discovery of buckminsterfullerene, the soccer-ball-shaped cage of carbon atoms that has seized the imagination of research chemists around the world. There is a dramatic human story in the personalities involved in making the discovery (research teams in Britain, the USA, and Germany), but the discovery itself is a paradigm for the way science works - collaborative research efforts, serendipity, the structure of research groups (who does what), "big" science versus "little" science, the motivation of fame and recognition for a major discovery.