After a few years of intensive research, we found a way to use a pulsed laser directed into a nozzle to vaporize any material, allowing for the first time the atoms of any element in the periodic table to be produced cold in a supersonic beam. Richard Smalley allowatombeam share on social
Essentially, every technology you have ever heard of, where electrons move from here to there, has the potential to be revolutionized by the availability of molecular wires made up of carbon. Organic chemists will start building devices. Molecular electronics could become reality. Richard Smalley availabilitybuildcarbon share on social
The buckyball, with sixty carbon atoms, is the most symmetrical form the carbon atom can take. Carbon in its nature has a genius for assembling into buckyballs. The perfect nanotube, that is, the nanotube that the carbon atom naturally wants to make and makes most often, is exactly large enough that one buckyball can roll right down the center. Richard Smalley assembleatombuckyball share on social
In a way, cancer is so simple and so natural. The older you get, this is just one of the things that happens as the clock ticks. Richard Smalley cancerclocknatural Change image and share on social
Diamond, for all its great beauty, is not nearly as interesting as the hexagonal plane of graphite. It is not nearly as interesting because we live in a three-dimensional space, and in diamond, each atom is surrounded in all three directions in space by a full coordination. Richard Smalley atombeautycoordination share on social
It turned out that the buckyball, the soccer ball, was something of a Rosetta stone of an infinite new class of molecules. Richard Smalley ballbuckyballclass Change image and share on social
My interest in science had many roots. Some came from my mother as she finished her B.A. degree studies in college while I was in my early teens. Richard Smalley collegedegreeearly Change image and share on social
Until late in life, I was never quite good enough for my father, and I suppose that is part of what drives me even now, well after his death in 1992. Richard Smalley deathdrivefather Change image and share on social
Carbon has this genius of making a chemically stable, two-dimensional, one-atom-thick membrane in a three-dimensional world. And that, I believe, is going to be very important in the future of chemistry and technology in general. Richard Smalley atomcarbonchemically share on social
Administrators and scientists are excited by buckyballs for their own sake, and if they turn out to have practical applications, so much the better. Richard Smalley administratorapplicationbuckyball Change image and share on social