Definition of "buckminsterfullerene" [buckminsterfullerene]

• An extremely stable, ball-shaped carbon molecule, C60, reminiscent of a geodesic dome, and believed to occur naturally in soot. It was the first fullerene to be discovered. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "To understand how the carbon atoms in buckminsterfullerene are connected to each other, we need only recall the pattern on the surface of a soccer ball, or European football."
• "The buckminsterfullerene was the first molecule to be discovered in the class of materials that subsequently became known as fullerenes."
• "Tom LetourneauCumberland, R. I.Chemists Get the CreditYour June 30 story "Bucky's Very Large Dome" on Buckminster Fuller stated that "physicists discovered the soccer-ball-shaped carbon C60 molecule" and named it "buckminsterfullerene" for its resemblance to Fuller's geodesic domes."