A Buckminster Fullerene molecule (or a 'Buckyball'). Photo published in the Bulletin on 4 February 1986.

This week in 1986, a Sussex chemistry Professor, Harry Kroto, was part of a team who discovered a previously unknown form of carbon (nicknamed Buckyballs).

The discovery would later earn Professor Kroto a knighthood and the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Here is an extract from the original article published in the Bulletin published on 4 February 1986:

Footballs in space?

A Sussex scientist has discovered by accident a previously unknown form of carbon which could open up completely new areas of chemical research.

The discovery – an unusual carbon molecule made up of 60 carbon atoms in the shape of a modern leather football – was made during attempts, at Rice University, Texas, to simulate the conditions existing in space between carbon-rich stars.

Professor Kroto, of the School of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences (MOLS), had gone to Texas to test out his theories on the ways in which carbon in space forms linear molecules. He wanted to use the powerful new vapourisation technique developed by Professor Rick Smalley at Rice University, which has been employed in the past to study the vapourisation of metals, to conduct experiments using carbon…

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