Discovering the Fullerenes (Nobel Lecture)

摘要

It is a thrill for me to be here today and to be the first of three speakers discussing the wonders of the fullerenes. an infinite new class of carbon molecules. My colleagues in this famous photograph (Figure 1) are also thrilled to be here in Stockholm this week to see "Bucky get the Prize". This picture was taken on September 11. 1985. the day before we sent off the manuscript describing the discovery of C_(60) to the editorial offices of Nature (and only a few days after the discovery itself). Every one of the people in that photograph was critically involved in the discovery (with the exception of the one woman walking in the back - we still don't know who that mystery woman was), so you can understand that there is also some sadness in our hearts today. While the chemistry prize this year is for the discovery of the fullerenes. it is given to individuals, and this individual honor can be shared by no more than three. The Nobel committee has done as-well as they possibly can with this problem.We understand. But the sadness remains.