Perfect Symmetry: Accidental Discovery of Buckminsterfullerene - Softcover

J. E. Baggott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198557892 ISBN 13: 9780198557890

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review

"Provides an overview of the state of the field that is as well informed and as up to date as one could wish.... Lavishly illustrated, largely with figures from the original sources.... Very well written and rewarding. You will get an excellent account of the story." --Nature

From the Author

About the author
Jim Baggott was born in Southampton, England, in 1957. He graduated in chemistry in 1978 and completed his doctorate at Oxford in 1981. Following a tour of duty as a postgraduate research fellow at Oxford and at Stanford University in California, he returned to England in 1983 to take up a lectureship at the University of Reading. After a further five years of academic life, he decided on a complete change of career direction and now works for a major multinational oil company. He maintains a broad interest in science and philosophy, and writed on both these subjects in his spare time. He has been awarded prizes both for his experimental research and his science writing. His first book, "The meaning of Quantum Theory", was published by Oxford University Press in 1992. He is married, with one son Tim and a daughter Emma.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198557892
• ISBN 13: 9780198557890
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 326