Photo: Jynto (CC)
Buckminster Fuller (1895 – 1983) was the quintessential polymath: inventor, researcher, engineer, philosopher, mathematician, architect, teacher, archivist, author, social theorist, futurist, mystic & poet.
Best known for inventing (or more accurately ‘discovering’) the Geodesic Dome. *There were a few earlier domes built but no evidence the designers understood the engineering & mathematical implications of the shape*. He didn’t live to see the discovery of C-60, formally named Buckminsterfullerine in his honor, or the novel variant fullerines which, as minimum-case geometric shapes, are the essential building blocks of nanotechnology.
Fullerines were discovered in the lab, but quickly thereafter found to be ubiquitous in nature. These little 60-atom carbon soccer-balls are produced every time you strike a match or smoke a joint. They are also seen in deep space in large quantities (created in stellar explosions), and may have a cosmic function in kickstarting self-replicatory life processes.
Now the word is in … Buckyballs mixed in olive oil are like a super-mega antioxidant.… Read the rest
