This geodesic sculpture is on the campus of the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia. The sculpture honors Buckminster Fuller for the patent they issued for the design idea.
Science Innovation is Everywhere
Innovation inspired by science
is everywhere
Look around you. Scientific innovation is everywhere. Take the soccer-ball-like shape of a geodesic dome — you find that curious structure in the oddest places.
I found myself inside a humongous one once. Expo 67 World’s Fair. I was a little kid and was convinced I had walked into the future.
Buckminster Fuller, an architect, designed it for the United States pavilion for the Fair. Fuller received a U.S. patent for popularizing the idea although not the original inventor. Who was? (Answers are below).
That soccer-ball shape even appears in the movie, “Project Hail Mary.” That’s Rocky in a geodesic sphere filled with ammonia that he built to hang out with Dr. Grace, aka Ryan Gosling.
Answers, as promised
Who discovered the Buckminsterfullerene molecule? Three scientists in 1985: Harold W. Kroto, Richard E. Smalley, and Robert F. Curl Jr. who were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Each molecule has 60 carbon atoms arranged in a stable, hollow sphere with a soccer-ball-like pattern.
What’s with the long name? The scientists call it a “buckyball” for short. It’s named after Buckminster Fuller because it looks like his geodesic domes.
Who was the first to build a geodesic structure? Walther Bauersfeld, a German engineer, used the shape to design a planetarium in 1923.
Where is Rebel Artist? She is on the campus of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria, Virginia. The geodesic sculpture honors Buckminster Fuller for the patent of office issued for the design idea.