the most exciting developments in the 20th century was carbon 60 or
Bucky Balls.
There was a chemist called Buckminster and he came up with the
theoretical possibility of a round carbon molecule which was
eponymously entitled. I can't remember if he made it or not.
This was a leap for molecular chemsity and the technology is bringing about significant advances in other areas, for
example through the development of carbon nanotubes. The application of Buckminster's advance will be seen in area from computing to cars over this century.
In his younger years he contemplated suicide. There's a story (I read in
a book about buddhism but can't remember the title and which I'm afraid
I'm butchering in the retelling) about him walking to the edge of a lake
ready to kill himself.
Anyone who's been to that place - the edge of the lake, the moment
before you swallow the pills, the edge of the cliff - knows how special
that time is and how intensely significant the moments before a planned suicide are.
He stepped away from the edge of the lake but the experience changed
him. He decided to give his life to his science.
He also came up with a concept I rather like. He considered the universe
his employer. I just love that thought.
Whatever happened to him at the lake changed his life. He clearly found
a spiritual answer to suicide and he found a similar way to survive life. The concept of the universe as our employer is quasi-religious.
I wonder if he found it as hard as I have to keep the faith.
Uh, Buckminster Fullerene was simply named after Buckminster Fuller when C60 and it's amazing geodesic structure was discovered. Fuller had already died of a stroke by then. He was not a chemist, he was a comprehensive generalist, who tries to understand all the aspects of life and technology. For instance, he was one of the first to be 'green', talking about trash and how our culture was not sustainable and how it could be if we changed the way we think and therefor how we act as a culture. He wrote 'Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth' long before the green movement and dozens of other major books you can find in most libraries.
ReplyDeleteBut human survival on the large scales is not compatible with our virtual systems, especially the money system, our worse addiction, more horrible than the worse military genocide, so it is doubtful humanity will survive. The whole species is in the middle of that dark time on the edge of the Great Lakes like Buckminster Fuller. The decision is not yet made, Life or Suicide?
I thought he was a trained chemist and he came up with the theoretical possibility of a round carbon molecule and may have hypothesised the nanotube stuff as well. I should probably google it and check it out. He sounds like an amazing fella whatever he was doing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with part of your second paragraph though I think it's way over my head. We live in a mad world where peace is achieved by Mutually Assured Destruction, where money doesn't represent work done and warmongers are paid more than peaceniks, globalisation has created the increased possibility of epidemic diseases that can wipe out large tracts of the population and then there's the whole climate change thing. We live in a time where technology has reached the point where it can destroy the planet - when they built the Large Hadron Collider they had to live with the possibility that it would create a black hole that would destroy the world and swallow the solar system.
People who see the world as it is and have a heart would find your last question easy to answer. The answer is made more complex by the hope that things can be better and that a single individual can be part of making that change. Each person has a choice whether they believe in that hope or not.