The element carbon has been widely studied because of how essential it is to all life forms. Based on the way carbon molecules link together, minuscule carbon forms can take on many different shapes. One of them is called the buckyball, though you probably know it as Carbon60.

Carbon60 is a molecule made of carbon that is also called Buckminsterfullerene or fullerene, after a man named Buckminster Fuller. Who was he, and why do some people refer to C60 after his name?