1. The Story of the Buckyball

2. Our story starts off with
stars
in space

3. The Sun is a Star – Our Star

4. Our Earth goes round the Sun

5. many millions of years into the future
One day
many millions of years into the future

6. the Sun will blow up

8. aaaaghhh!!!

9. Ouch!
it’s

10. HOT

11. of stars like our Sun in space
There are
lots and lots and lots
of stars like our Sun in space

12. In fact there are about
ten thousand
million
stars in Space

13. We can write this in numbersas

14. 1
followed by
22 noughts (or zeros)

15. We can write as
1022

16. 1022

17. is a very

18. BIG
number

19. There are 10 dots here
………,

20. ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………,
100
………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………,

21. ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………,
1000
………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………,

22. This is only
1000
so…

23. 1022

24. is really

25. really

26. BIG

27. On this screen there are only
1024 x 768 =
pixels
Less than 1 million
< 106

28. On this screen there are only
1024 x 768 =
786432
pixels
Less than 1 million
< 106

29. Now lets think about something that is very
small
a molecule

30. We are all made out of very tiny molecules

31. Molecules are bundles of very tiny atoms
Carbon atoms C
Nitrogen atoms N
Oxygen atoms O
Hydrogen atoms H
…mainly

32. The water molecule, H2O, has
two Hydrogen atoms
and
one Oxygen atom O
H H

33. and it is
very
small

34. a million million million million
In a glass of water
there are about
a million million million million
water molecules

35.
=1024

36. Where did our atoms come from?

37. were made a very long time ago
All your atoms
were made a very long time ago
inside a star
a bit like our Sun

38. That star exploded
millions of years ago

43. and blew your atoms into space

44. They floated around in space for millions of years

45. and ended up here
TODAY

46. So we all came from outer space
We are all aliens

47. We tried to create
a bit of a
very very hot star
in our laboratory

48. you can burn a hole in a piece of wood
lens
Sun’s Rays
With a magnifying glass and Sunlight
you can burn a hole in a piece of wood

49. We used a laser instead of the Sun and Graphite
like the lead in a pencil

50. clusters of 60 atoms formed

51. with the same pattern as a soccer ball
We decided that
the 60 carbon atoms
were stuck together
to form a cage
with the same pattern as a soccer ball

52. o

53. o

54. o

55. o

56. o

57. o

58. C60: Buckminsterfullerene

59. The Earth is 100,000,000 times larger than a soccerball
and a soccerball is 100,000,000 x larger than a Buckyball
107m
10-1m
10-9m
108
108

60. o

62. 12 Pentagons on a Soccer Ball
12 x 5 = 60 corners