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Inspirational Molecules editorial Inspirational molecules Harry Kroto, buckminsterfullerene and an enduring legacy. Sir Harry Kroto, one of the discoverers Kroto was passionate about education and of C60, died on 30 April 2016 aged 76. public engagement — he was worried about An enthusiastic advocate for the what would be the ‘Meccano’ for the next importance of science, his discovery generation of scientists1. After he received of the spherical buckminsterfullerene the Nobel Prize he devoted a lot of time to stands as a landmark in the evolution these endeavours and was well known for his of nanotechnology. engaging lecture style. Kroto was born Harold Walter In 1995, Kroto founded the Vega Krotoschiner on 7 October 1939 in Wisbech, Science Trust3 and later the Global a small village in Cambridgeshire, and Educational Outreach for Science, grew up in Bolton. He read Chemistry at Engineering and Technology (GEOSET; the University of Sheffield, graduated in www.geoset.info), which created TV 1961 and completed a PhD in spectroscopy and online content about all aspects of at the same institution in 1964. After science. He understood the potential the postdoctoral positions at the National Internet offered for the democratization Research Council in Ottawa and Bell Labs in © ANNE PURKISS of broadcasting. In many respects, this the US, Kroto returned to the UK to take up web-based platform was ahead of its time, a position at Sussex University in 19661. the top of the paper. In 1996, the Nobel and was limited by connection speeds Initially, Kroto was interested in Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded to in the 1990s. Although no longer active, the detection and characterization of Curl, Kroto and Smalley. In the same year these projects still contain a wealth of cyanoacetylene chains such as HC5N Kroto was knighted. Subsequently, Kroto resources for science education, including and HC7N, which had been found in was keen to highlight his most famous conversations with luminaries such as interstellar space. In 1985, Robert Curl discovery as a team effort: “I, Bob Curl Fred Sanger and Richard Feynman, scientific invited Kroto to Rice University where he and Rick Smalley got the Nobel Prize, and debates such as ‘Nanotechnology: The next met Richard Smalley, who had recently Jim Heath and Sean O’Brien got a bloody big thing’, and even a collaboration with developed his cluster beam apparatus. good meal at McDonald’s out of it.”3 The Manchester United to exploit the uncanny Kroto thought that if they used the structure was debated by many, including resemblance of C60 to a football. apparatus to produce a plasma from a group from Exxon, New Jersey, who had Although the practical applications of graphite, they could establish the role of seen evidence of C60 in 1984 but had not C60 have remained limited, its discovery carbon stars in the genesis of interstellar recognized its significance. Evidence for the changed our perception of the behaviour molecules. What they actually found was structure amassed but it was not explicitly of carbon and paved the way for work completely unexpected. The vaporization confirmed until 1990 by Krätschmer on carbon nanotubes and graphene. of graphite resulted in the formation of and colleagues4. Considering Kroto’s original motivations to several sphere-shaped molecules, and on Kroto’s first love was graphics, which understand the formation of molecules in noticing sharp peaks for clusters of 60 and he said was more important to him than outer space, it seems fitting that two recent 5 6 7 70 carbon atoms in the mass spectra, science . The discovery of 60C actually papers have now detected and confirmed the team optimized the procedure to led to him shelving his dream of working the astronomical role of C60. Kroto worked favour the formation of 60-atom clusters. as a graphic designer5. It seems almost on other nanoscience advances, but possibly Kroto, Smalley, Curl, Sean O’Brien and predestined that a scientist such as Kroto more important than his scientific legacy Jim Heath — or ‘the football team’, as Kroto would have a guiding hand in the discovery is the enduring inspirational impact of a called them — published their initial paper, of a molecule that resembles the geodesic molecule shaped like a football, an iconic simply titled ‘C60: Buckminsterfullerene’, in domes of Buckminster Fuller. As he image that he used to communicate his love Nature in 19852. describes in his Nobel Prize autobiography, of science to great effect. ❐ “we […] only really had the number [60] “I had the strong gut feeling to go on — and our intuition. I had the References strong gut feeling that it was so beautiful 1. Sir Harold Kroto — Biographical. Nobelprize.org; that it was so beautiful a a solution that it just had to be right.”5 http://go.nature.com/P51Tpf 2. Kroto, H. W., Heath, J. R., O’Brien, S. C., Curl, R. F. solution that it just had to When Kroto spoke of C60, he most often & Smalley, R. E. Nature 318, 162–163 (1985). referenced its beauty, quoting Russell, 3. A Round Peg In A Square Hole — 2002 Faraday Award Lecture; be right.” Wordsworth and Abelard and talking of http://go.nature.com/MBYYev 1 4. Krätschmer, W., Lamb, L. D., Fostiropoulos, K. & Huffman, D. R. its “stunningly beautiful delicate magenta” Nature 347, 354–358 (1990). Both Kroto and Smalley came up in solution. 5. Hargittai, I. Candid Science: Conversations with Famous Chemists with the same modelled structure, a As a child Kroto played with Meccano, (Imperial College Press, 2000). truncated icosahedron made up of which he credits with leading him on a 6. Cami, J., Bernard-Salas, J., Peeters, E. & Malek, S. E. Science 329, 1180–1182 (2010). 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons — just like path towards a career in scientific research. 7. Campbell, E. K., Holz, M., Gerlich, D. & Maier, J. P. Nature a football, the enduring image that sits at As well as a successful research career, 523, 322–323 (2015). NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY | VOL 11 | JUNE 2016 | www.nature.com/naturenanotechnology 489 ©2016 Mac millan Publishers Li mited. All ri ghts reserved. .
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