A fullerene is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the
form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube. Spherical
fullerenes are also called buckyballs, and they resemble the
balls used in association football. Cylindrical ones are called
carbon nanotubes or buckytubes. They are usually made in the
form of a hollow ball or tube. The fullerene was found in 1985
by Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley at the
University of Sussex and Rice University, and was named after
Buckminster Fuller because his famous Geodesic domes are similar
in shape.