I met Harry a few years ago at my university. My research group had a meeting with him and he was such an interesting and approachable guy. Really into his science and such an advocate for science education. Shame to have lost someone so enthusiastic and driven.
Greetings Sir Martyn Poliakoff! You are absolutely right about how humble Dr. Kroto was. I had the opportunity of listening to his keynote presentation at the American Chemical Society a year or two before he passed away, in Tennessee. Later on in the same day of that presentation, I saw Dr. Kroto at a bar from the conference hotel and I mentioned to him about how nice and inspiring his presentation was. He asked me to sit down next to him and tell him about my research. He made me feel very welcomed and important. I talk to my students in General Chemistry on how I met him, how he was very humble, and of his impressive discovery of the carbon allotrope. When I watched your video, it made me sad because such a wonderful and passionate educator died. But I am happy you made the video as an amazing tribute to him. I’m sorry you lost your friend. Big hug. Sincerely, Edward D’Antonio
Not enough scientists advocate the importance of teaching science to others. R.I.P a great scientist that had such a big impact on the scientific community.
Yes, that is indeed sad. In fact most of us (scientists) hold the belief that the student has to prove they are worth an explanation before having it given. I don't agree with such approach, because to me it seems like answering your question by yourself instead of encouraging collaboration or asking question. This is an old academic problem, but I can only hope we are going gradually in the right direction.
I can confirm Harry was a very kind, modest man. Quite remarkable for a Nobel Prize winner. I met him once as a first year postdoc at a conference dinner. He wanted to sit at a table with students, and my friend and I were the youngest in the group, so he chose our table. He was delightful to talk to and very interested in our projects. Being in a different field, I didn’t know who he was or how famous he was. Upon leaving the dinner, one of the Conference organizers came up to me and said “What was it like eating with a Nobel Laureate?” I can say it was a truly lovely experience getting to meet Harry. This was a lovely video tribute to him and C60.
I used these videos to home school my grandchildren during Covid. They and their friends who joined our little classroom were saddened by this video and whom they had come to care so much for the " RUclips Professor".
I have just finished a wonderful trip, first with wikipedia's coverage of Harry Kroto and then several youtube videos on the construction of fullerene spheres. Thanks so much for the thoughtful memorial and an introduction to one of nature's marvels.
Sir Harry Kroto went to my high school and the Chemistry Block is named after him. He will forever be remembered for his work which has inspired many Chemistry enthusiasts. Rest in peace.
I went to the same secondary school as Harry Kroto did (though not until many years after he had left) and I started my A-levels (including chemistry) in 1997, the year after he won his Nobel Prize. It was always something of an inspiration to me back then to think that maybe I was learning science in one of the same rooms that he had learned in, years earlier.
Lovely video. Love the story of Kroto putting the bowl on Poliakoffs head! It sounds like they were very close, and I'm sad to hear a great man has left us. Rest in peace, Kroto.
I first discovered Professor Sir Harry Kroto on an episode of 'Horizon' ("Molecules With Sunglasses", Jan 20th 1992), and I have been a fan of his popular science contributions ever since. RIP Sir Harry.
I was lucky enough to meet Harry at the WSCI in Israel last year. what an inspiration! best speaker of all. Im not sure about the grafic designer part. Harry mentioned that he wanted to be an actor in his youth and took lessons together with Sir Ian Mckellen. rest in peace
I'm so sad. Sir Harold Kroto was my favorite chemist, he won the Nobel the year I was born. Nowadays I'm studing chemistry in Barcelona University and probably will study organics in order to honour Kroto.
I remember when i was young i saw C60 in a book about science.. i was so fascinated and wanted to be a scientist when i grow up. Well.. i'm not but i'm still fascinated.
I really enjoyed this video :) We studied fullerene in class but I loved how you talked about Kroto and his personality. Greetings from a nanotechnology student in Milan, Italy!
Very nice tribute. I like it. I'm so sorry to here about this. What an amazing and passionate scientist! I'm so happy that he discovered these findings! He revolutionized science! Dr. Sir Harold Kroto is a legend! He has inspired so many, and he will be missed.
Remember friends, the special equilateral geometries in the BuckyBall is just a one off example of when equilateral geometries arise in chemistry. It's literally no where else, so don't get your hopes up. Now, it's time for you to memorize more equations written in English that represent physical 3d matter.
Indeed, humility is the most important virtue of a true saint. You mentioned that he gave a lecture at the opening of the center, any chance their is a video of that which could be shared?
One might also observe that the lit flame of the Bunsen burner representing Brighton, is in the shape of an onion... and the Brighton pavilion dome is this shape too.
Perhaps in response to this upload, the relevant article has shot to the top of google search results for "C60La," but unfortunately it is very expensive and even the preview image does not exist. Does anyone know why the inclusion of a lanthanum atom would make the structure more plausible?
TheNuklearAge But C60 is (partially) aromatic, right? The usual description is that every bond has bond number 1.33, so every carbon atom participates in 4 bonds. There is dihedral strain obviously, but the dihedrals are around ±140°, so it's not that bad.
EebstertheGreat Hybridization works well for simple cases but is not generally used for fullerenes as the descriptor is controversial, but even from that perspective not all carbons would have 4 bonds. Coordination-wise it is 3. Quantum calculations do indeed show that C60 has less binding energy than graphite but more than its neighbors, that is, it's a local minimum not a global. It's well known , though, that diamond is also metastable by this definition.
TheNuklearAge Sure, well it's not surprising that it is a higher energy configuration than graphite, since that is the stable allotrope of carbon. But what exactly do you mean that "coordination-wise" there are only 3 bonds? Is it because the other electrons are delocalized? I don't really know anything about fullerene chemistry, but my understanding was that the delocalized electrons were stabilizing rather than destabilizing like they are in planar aromatic compounds.
TheNuklearAge You don't need that kind of precision when describing the structure of organic molecules. Molecular orbital assignment for small molecules is generally pretty straightforward with modern quantum dynamics suites, assuming accurate empirical parameters are available. There is no reason you would want to calculate everything _ab initio_. I've worked with energy minimization and solvation of ~40 atom aromatic molecules before on Gaussian without much difficulty, and that was using just 4 CPUs for an hour at a time. Of course you don't use the complete Schrodinger equation, you use a self-consistent field equation. Looking online, I found a value for the pentagon-hexagon bond cited as 1.17 and for the hexagon-hexagon bond cited as 1.37, implying each atom participates in ~3.5 bonds, which I admit is somewhat unusual.
TheNuklearAge The only DFT I've used was B3LYP, which I used extensively for geometry optimization in substituted amino acids, but I'm not sure it would be adequate for fullerenes. But I think I have a different idea of "big calculations" than you do, since most of my work was in protein minimization, where a very "small" _classical_ calculation had something like 1500 atoms; the DFT was just for generating parameter files.
Isn't it crazy that someone can discover a new shape of molecule after it's been discovered. "We would like to award you with the Nobel prize for the discovery of the 'soccer ball'".
I remember reading a short pop-sci article about C60 in early 1990s. Back then, it was speculated, that such big, enclosed molecule could be used as a container, either to deliver some chemicals or drugs or to contain some pollution. Seems to me, C60 was never as hyped as graphene or nanotubes are now, so I wonder, what came out of it, have there been found any applications for it?
Wonder if it is possible to set up a carbon 60 sensor or collector on a spacecraft and put that in orbit around the sun to further this field of study. We couldn't put a spacecraft around another star but maybe it's possible to get enough information by studying our own sun that we could estimate the production rate of C60 by other stars.
C60 has the shape of an Archimedean solid, the truncated icosahedron if memory serves -- but that doesn't sound too catchy, so I understand Sir Harry's choice of name.
+PureZOOKS It's because the brochure was for the chemistry department at Brighton. Kind of a mischievous joke saying that Brighton is the only department which is "switched on" or "lit up".
Only the Bunsen burner over his university has a flame on it. The implication is presumably that his chemistry department is the only "hot" one in Britain.
Carbon is not element twelve, it is element 6 with a mass of 12 atomic mass units. It is interesting that carbon's mass is used top define the amu however, carbon-12 has a mass of exactly 12 amus and no other isotope has an exact whole-number mass.
+Noa Hölzer I would imagine it is referring to the fact the molecule has now been detected in and around the atmospheres of stars, as Harry kind of predicted, and as Martyn says in this video.
+Rupert Rooksby Ha ha. Love ya avatar m8. I had an ActionMan just like him, grunt soldier with a machine gun if I recall correctly. Probably my third or something. I'm that old my first ActionMan didn't even have the realistic hair, he was the Frogman. AAHHH! I used to love my ActionMen. And the Army comics around the late 60s early 70s.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
I met Harry a few years ago at my university. My research group had a meeting with him and he was such an interesting and approachable guy. Really into his science and such an advocate for science education. Shame to have lost someone so enthusiastic and driven.
+kesakhan thanks for sharing
+Periodic Videos thanks for caring
+Periodic Videos tell the Prof' we're sorry for his loss
C-60 wasn't what killed him was it
Greetings Sir Martyn Poliakoff! You are absolutely right about how humble Dr. Kroto was. I had the opportunity of listening to his keynote presentation at the American Chemical Society a year or two before he passed away, in Tennessee. Later on in the same day of that presentation, I saw Dr. Kroto at a bar from the conference hotel and I mentioned to him about how nice and inspiring his presentation was. He asked me to sit down next to him and tell him about my research. He made me feel very welcomed and important. I talk to my students in General Chemistry on how I met him, how he was very humble, and of his impressive discovery of the carbon allotrope. When I watched your video, it made me sad because such a wonderful and passionate educator died. But I am happy you made the video as an amazing tribute to him. I’m sorry you lost your friend. Big hug. Sincerely, Edward D’Antonio
Not enough scientists advocate the importance of teaching science to others. R.I.P a great scientist that had such a big impact on the scientific community.
Yes, that is indeed sad. In fact most of us (scientists) hold the belief that the student has to prove they are worth an explanation before having it given.
I don't agree with such approach, because to me it seems like answering your question by yourself instead of encouraging collaboration or asking question.
This is an old academic problem, but I can only hope we are going gradually in the right direction.
Prof, that was a beautiful memorial for a Nobel Prize winner and a friend!
I can confirm Harry was a very kind, modest man. Quite remarkable for a Nobel Prize winner. I met him once as a first year postdoc at a conference dinner. He wanted to sit at a table with students, and my friend and I were the youngest in the group, so he chose our table. He was delightful to talk to and very interested in our projects. Being in a different field, I didn’t know who he was or how famous he was. Upon leaving the dinner, one of the Conference organizers came up to me and said “What was it like eating with a Nobel Laureate?” I can say it was a truly lovely experience getting to meet Harry. This was a lovely video tribute to him and C60.
So very sorry your friend passed away. You describe him with such obvious affection, he must have been a very lovely gentleman.
Very nice tribute to your friend, Professor. Thank you.
Martyn is such a sweety "I'm sure he would like it if we bounced a molecule of C60 off the plaque" what a sweetheart
RIP Dr. Kroto. Florida State will sorely miss you.
Dr. Kroto gave my commencement address last year and I will never forget it.
+Robbie Franklin liar
+Dennis Cat what would I lie about?
I used these videos to home school my grandchildren during Covid. They and their friends who joined our little classroom were saddened by this video and whom they had come to care so much for the " RUclips Professor".
I have just finished a wonderful trip, first with wikipedia's coverage of Harry Kroto and then several youtube videos on the construction of fullerene spheres. Thanks so much for the thoughtful memorial and an introduction to one of nature's marvels.
Sir Harry Kroto went to my high school and the Chemistry Block is named after him. He will forever be remembered for his work which has inspired many Chemistry enthusiasts. Rest in peace.
I went to the same secondary school as Harry Kroto did (though not until many years after he had left) and I started my A-levels (including chemistry) in 1997, the year after he won his Nobel Prize. It was always something of an inspiration to me back then to think that maybe I was learning science in one of the same rooms that he had learned in, years earlier.
Condolences. This was a lovely eulogy.
Lovely video. Love the story of Kroto putting the bowl on Poliakoffs head! It sounds like they were very close, and I'm sad to hear a great man has left us. Rest in peace, Kroto.
I first discovered Professor Sir Harry Kroto on an episode of 'Horizon' ("Molecules With Sunglasses", Jan 20th 1992), and I have been a fan of his popular science contributions ever since. RIP Sir Harry.
0:36
"Harry Kroto was a physical chemist"~ and the most dashingly handsome one to ever teach.
Brilliant tribute to a brilliant scientist. Thank you.
I was lucky enough to meet Harry at the WSCI in Israel last year. what an inspiration! best speaker of all.
Im not sure about the grafic designer part. Harry mentioned that he wanted to be an actor in his youth and took lessons together with Sir Ian Mckellen.
rest in peace
amazing video as always Brady
I loved the way he talked scornfully about some Nobel laureates "who think they're really great" and then added "which they are".
I'm so sad. Sir Harold Kroto was my favorite chemist, he won the Nobel the year I was born. Nowadays I'm studing chemistry in Barcelona University and probably will study organics in order to honour Kroto.
Such a shame to lose a great scientist. I feel honoured that I got the opportunity to meet him and talk to him.
Really touching video, and a fitting tribute to a great man
I remember when i was young i saw C60 in a book about science.. i was so fascinated and wanted to be a scientist when i grow up. Well.. i'm not but i'm still fascinated.
excellent tribute ! thanks !
You tripped me a lil bit with that shot of the two vials.
Such a lovely tribute! Thank you Professor Poliakoff.
Marvelous tribute. Well done.
I really enjoyed this video :) We studied fullerene in class but I loved how you talked about Kroto and his personality. Greetings from a nanotechnology student in Milan, Italy!
Very nice tribute. I like it. I'm so sorry to here about this. What an amazing and passionate scientist! I'm so happy that he discovered these findings! He revolutionized science! Dr. Sir Harold Kroto is a legend! He has inspired so many, and he will be missed.
Did anyone else notice the vial of C60 getting bigger at 4:13?
4:15 that bottle on the left getting bigger freaked me out
+geetarwanabe I thought it was just sliding towards the camera, but looking at it again maybe you are right. Spooky!
+geetarwanabe LOL, it is too.
I think that nanotechnology centre should be renamed after Kroto in his honor.
+Desmaad There's the Kroto Research Institute at the University of Sheffield, where Kroto got his undergrad degree
Remember friends, the special equilateral geometries in the BuckyBall is just a one off example of when equilateral geometries arise in chemistry. It's literally no where else, so don't get your hopes up. Now, it's time for you to memorize more equations written in English that represent physical 3d matter.
Indeed, humility is the most important virtue of a true saint.
You mentioned that he gave a lecture at the opening of the center, any chance their is a video of that which could be shared?
RIP, Dr.Kroto, from your friends in Houston...
Rest in peace
that's amazing, gotta love those who know how to have fun while getting work done.
your videos are so interesting! ive learned much from them
This channel is awesome !!
please show some old photos of sir poliakoff!
One might also observe that the lit flame of the Bunsen burner representing Brighton, is in the shape of an onion... and the Brighton pavilion dome is this shape too.
Fascinating subject. Excellent video thankyou
That stamp sparked my initial interest in buckyballs!
Amazing insight to his work and tribute, nice vid
"...jealous of my hair..."
Who wouldn't be, sir Martyn, who wouldn't be.
Great video, so interesting. Thank you.
The Brighton bunsen isn't just alight, it's also signifying the Pavilion :)!
This is an absolutely perfect talk and amazing topic ;-) :)
My undergrad pchem professor did his dissertation under Richard Smalley... Small world!
Perhaps in response to this upload, the relevant article has shot to the top of google search results for "C60La," but unfortunately it is very expensive and even the preview image does not exist. Does anyone know why the inclusion of a lanthanum atom would make the structure more plausible?
TheNuklearAge But C60 is (partially) aromatic, right? The usual description is that every bond has bond number 1.33, so every carbon atom participates in 4 bonds. There is dihedral strain obviously, but the dihedrals are around ±140°, so it's not that bad.
EebstertheGreat
Hybridization works well for simple cases but is not generally used for fullerenes as the descriptor is controversial, but even from that perspective not all carbons would have 4 bonds. Coordination-wise it is 3.
Quantum calculations do indeed show that C60 has less binding energy than graphite but more than its neighbors, that is, it's a local minimum not a global. It's well known , though, that diamond is also metastable by this definition.
TheNuklearAge Sure, well it's not surprising that it is a higher energy configuration than graphite, since that is the stable allotrope of carbon. But what exactly do you mean that "coordination-wise" there are only 3 bonds? Is it because the other electrons are delocalized?
I don't really know anything about fullerene chemistry, but my understanding was that the delocalized electrons were stabilizing rather than destabilizing like they are in planar aromatic compounds.
TheNuklearAge You don't need that kind of precision when describing the structure of organic molecules. Molecular orbital assignment for small molecules is generally pretty straightforward with modern quantum dynamics suites, assuming accurate empirical parameters are available. There is no reason you would want to calculate everything _ab initio_. I've worked with energy minimization and solvation of ~40 atom aromatic molecules before on Gaussian without much difficulty, and that was using just 4 CPUs for an hour at a time. Of course you don't use the complete Schrodinger equation, you use a self-consistent field equation.
Looking online, I found a value for the pentagon-hexagon bond cited as 1.17 and for the hexagon-hexagon bond cited as 1.37, implying each atom participates in ~3.5 bonds, which I admit is somewhat unusual.
TheNuklearAge The only DFT I've used was B3LYP, which I used extensively for geometry optimization in substituted amino acids, but I'm not sure it would be adequate for fullerenes. But I think I have a different idea of "big calculations" than you do, since most of my work was in protein minimization, where a very "small" _classical_ calculation had something like 1500 atoms; the DFT was just for generating parameter files.
Thank you.
I remember hearing the news that buckyballs had been found in space but I had no idea that it was being searched for all along! RIP Harry Kroto.
Try the Double slit trick with C60.
The most amazing thing abou C60, it shows wave-particle duality.
Isn't it crazy that someone can discover a new shape of molecule after it's been discovered. "We would like to award you with the Nobel prize for the discovery of the 'soccer ball'".
I remember reading a short pop-sci article about C60 in early 1990s. Back then, it was speculated, that such big, enclosed molecule could be used as a container, either to deliver some chemicals or drugs or to contain some pollution. Seems to me, C60 was never as hyped as graphene or nanotubes are now, so I wonder, what came out of it, have there been found any applications for it?
there are a few uses in nanotech, fundamental research mostly.
People managed to trap metal cations inside.
was that vial moving at 4:06 - 4:15 ?
Yes
Wonder if it is possible to set up a carbon 60 sensor or collector on a spacecraft and put that in orbit around the sun to further this field of study. We couldn't put a spacecraft around another star but maybe it's possible to get enough information by studying our own sun that we could estimate the production rate of C60 by other stars.
Sorry for your (and the world of Science & Education's) loss, Sir... what a wonderful tribute though, thanks for sharing! :)
This man is science
C60 has the shape of an Archimedean solid, the truncated icosahedron if memory serves -- but that doesn't sound too catchy, so I understand Sir Harry's choice of name.
All the sound is bad... Would love to hear this video again with normal sound.
Lovely video.
Why was the Brighton one alight?
+PureZOOKS It's because the brochure was for the chemistry department at Brighton. Kind of a mischievous joke saying that Brighton is the only department which is "switched on" or "lit up".
I don't get the Bunsen Burner joke. Can someone explain it?
Only the Bunsen burner over his university has a flame on it. The implication is presumably that his chemistry department is the only "hot" one in Britain.
or they were the only 'bright' university.
or the only working one.
quarter % of a flame is c60 and his university that quarter % was surrounded by more c60 like no other univreristy
rest in peace harry
Why was the red one getting bigger... 4:05
There is a disappointing lack of the word "buckyball" in this video.
It does have buckminsterfullerene however, and I like that.
very cool molecule
htown represent!
Sir Harry Kroto gave us the C60 Bucky Ball the new molecular mascot of FIFA...
Anyone else notice the growing vial of C60?
+esnevip Yeah, though that was C70 ;)
+esnevip Ahem... *C70*
Yes. Thought I was going crazy.
Sir I have c80 fullerence In India any Delear thare
I recall the Base 12 video from Numberphile and it seems rather ironic that Carbon is element 12 and that 60 divides by 12. Even Carbon likes Base 12.
Carbon is not element twelve, it is element 6 with a mass of 12 atomic mass units. It is interesting that carbon's mass is used top define the amu however, carbon-12 has a mass of exactly 12 amus and no other isotope has an exact whole-number mass.
This time no vodka? Or was the vodka shot only for close friends who passed away?
I'm at analyst at Thomas Swan! Small world
Please do a video on Christian Schafmeister of Temple University and his molecular Lego for building nanostructures!
Y'all should put a prince ruperts drop in hf hydrofluoric acid as an experiment
Very nice video :-)
Hope they name some undiscovered element *"Krotonium"* in the future in his honor someday.
That bowl looks more like a thistle than a rose.
I notice that Sir Martyn Poliakoff has some rather fancy looking tea in his mug. What might it be? It arose my interest
Luovain Kratom
damn you can vape with a laser? what kinda ohm range does the carbon rod have?
8:50 Am I the only one who thinks that those burners look like "bongs" ???
I thought it is widely known as "Szungit"?
search for "Molecules with sunglasses" to watch a very fine film about C60 and Harry Kroto.
+Rupert Rooksby that seems like a weird name, what is it referring to?
+Noa Hölzer
I would imagine it is referring to the fact the molecule has now been detected in and around the atmospheres of stars, as Harry kind of predicted, and as Martyn says in this video.
+Rupert Rooksby
Ha ha. Love ya avatar m8. I had an ActionMan just like him, grunt soldier with a machine gun if I recall correctly. Probably my third or something. I'm that old my first ActionMan didn't even have the realistic hair, he was the Frogman.
AAHHH! I used to love my ActionMen. And the Army comics around the late 60s early 70s.
I wish if i can get all the knowledge in the world and just put it in my brain
faisal raihan Read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and read about Marvin the robot, and you'll get the answer
I'm concerned about the purplish flush areas on the professor's right cheek and bridge of nose .
And the professor has his cranium specially laboratory prepared like a Teletubby.
rip :(
It's a very interesting alletrope of carbon
RIP
Search "BBC Horizon 1996 Molecules with Sunglasses" for an awesome documentary about the whole story!
Anyone else having audio weirdness? Getting some odd scratching when he talks.
+Ryan Amberger nah
a lovely eulogy
is C60 the carbon bucky ball's?
I like C-60.
The new " I Like Turtles".
:(