When Robert Curl was 9 years old, his parents gave him a chemistry set for Christmas. Though his mother was upset when nitric acid spilled on the family stove, he had found a calling.
The gift led to a 64-year career as a researcher and professor at Rice University, where in 1985 he happened to be available to help when a group of scientists performed a series of experiments using lasers to vaporize graphite, a form of carbon. They discovered that the carbon frequently rearranged itself into spheres of 60 atoms resembling an extremely small soccer ball, with a diameter of about 1 billionth of a meter.
