The Buckyball is a chemical model proposed by, and named after, R. Buckminster Fuller, in which all atoms are connected to all other neighboring atoms. What results is an extremely complex, but extremely stable molecule.

In the 1980s scientists determined that another carbon allotrope conjectured for some years as a possibility does indeed occur: carbon atoms linked to form a more or less spherical molecule. A whole family of allotropes, with differing numbers of atoms, is now known to exist. The first to be identified and the most symmetrical of the family, with 60 atoms and 32 sides (20 hexagons and 12 pentagons), was nicknamed "buckyball" and thereafter formally named buckminsterfullerene, because it resembles the geodesic domes of American inventor R. Buckminster Fuller. Spherical carbon molecules as a group are called fullerenes. Buckminsterfullerene is now being produced in marketable quantities for use by scientists. Its occurrence in carbon-containing materials on Earth may yet prove to be widespread, and it is suggested as a fairly common interstellar molecule. Its superconducting properties and its potential for opening new areas of chemistry have made study of the "buckyball" one of the most rapidly expanding areas of research. (The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia )