Horizon
Season 29 Episode 3 - Molecules With Sunglasses
About the original discovery in 1985 of a third form of solid carbon, named Buckminsterfullerene after the architect who invented geodesic domes. The two scientists who discovered the material glimpsed it for brief seconds only in their lasers but neither they nor other scientists subsequently could make the substance last long enough in the laser to prove their theory. Then in 1990, a couple of physicists with an arc-welder in a bell-jar found they could make as much Buckminsterfullerene as they liked, and industrial applications opened up, with talk of new polymers, molecular ball-bearings, lubricants and super- conductors. Meanwhile, the original discoverers were turning back to the fundamental questions surrounding the discovery, such as how and why does it form; does it exist in space or is it the solution to one of the great mysteries of the universe.
Episodes in Season 29
The Shadow of Breast Cancer
60 min
Pest Wars
60 min
Molecules With Sunglasses
60 min
In Search of the Noble Savage
60 min
Malaria: Battle of the Merozoites
60 min
The Black Sun
60 min
Hitler's Bomb
60 min
An Expensive Theology
60 min
The Strange Life and Death of Dr. Turing
60 min
Hot Jam in the Doughnut
60 min
A Diet for a Lifetime
60 min
Before Babel
60 min
The Man Who Moved the Mountains
60 min
Iceman
60 min
Taking the Credit
60 min
Fast Life in the Food Chain
60 min
Dodging Doomsday
60 min
A Question of Sport...
60 min
Genes R Us
60 min
