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Posted: August 11, 2010
Your questions answered by Nobel Laureate, Harry Kroto, on YouTube and Facebook
(Nanowerk News) Harry Kroto, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1996, is the latest to take part in the "Ask a Nobel Laureate" series on YouTube and Facebook. "Ask a Nobel Laureate" gives online viewers worldwide the unique opportunity to put their questions directly to a Nobel Laureate and see the responses.
Harry Kroto received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley for the discovery of C60, a remarkable molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a soccer-ball-like pattern. The configuration reminded Kroto of the futuristic geodesic domes designed by Richard Buckminster Fuller, and consequently C60 was given the name "buckminsterfullerine", otherwise known by its more popular name of "buckyballs".
Understanding precisely how these carbon molecules assemble, and learning how to build and design complex molecules on the nanoscale, such as better solar cells and drug delivery agents, continues to be a subject of intense research interest worldwide. And recently, a team of astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope detected what they say is the first conclusive evidence that C60 molecules can be created in space.
You can submit your questions to Harry Kroto on the Nobel Prize YouTube channel or on the NobelPrize.org Facebook page. Video or text questions will be accepted (though video questions are preferred), and you can visit the channels to see questions that have already been posted and vote for your favourite ones. The deadline for submitting questions is 4 September 2010. Harry Kroto will then answer a selection of questions, and his answers will be broadcast on our YouTube channel.
If you are searching for inspiration, take a look at the previous "Ask a Nobel Laureate" sessions with David Gross, Nobel Prize in Physics 2004, John Mather, Nobel Prize in Physics 2006 and Albert Fert, Nobel Prize in Physics 2007. Questions from students and the general public have ranged from "What is dark matter?" to "How big is space?" to "What did you read during your childhood?"