Carbon fullerenes—specifically C 60, the spherical "bucky ball"—have received their fair share of attention, even in the shadow of the more buzz-worthy developments with carbon nanotubes and graphene.

In 1980 we knew of only three forms of carbon, namely diamond, graphite, and amorphous carbon. Today we know there is a whole family of other forms of carbon. The first to be discovered was the hollow ...

The discovery of soccer-ball-shaped buckminsterfullerene in 1985 inspired researchers to lock atoms of a single element together into novel shapes, such as nanotubes, for applications in drug delivery ...