Number 2 (Story #5), October 4, 1990 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein A NEW FORM OF PURE SOLID CARBON has been discovered by a team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg (Germany) and the University of Arizona. X-ray diffraction studies have shown that the new solid consists of a "somewhat disordered hexagonal close packing of soccer-ball shaped C60 molecules." The crystallographic name for such an icosohedral shape is "fullerene," after the popular architect Buckminster Fuller, who pioneered the construction of geodesic domes. Spherical viruses and various other objects in nature possess a fullerene structure. The new carbon solid, the discoverers believe, may be usable as lubricants or as a sort of "molecular container" for smaller molecules. (Nature, 27 Oct 90)