|
« Back to "Archives" menu
|
|
Harry Kroto Innovative Lives Presentation
and Interview,
1 October 2001 |
Extent and Forms of Material: .75 cubic foot, including BetaCam
SP, 1⁄2” VHS video tapes, and 2 audio cassettes (4 boxes)
Creator: Harry Kroto and the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center
for the Study of Invention and Innovation
Abstract: Approximately five hours of video footage documenting
Harold Kroto, chemist and Nobel Laureate (Chemistry, 1996) discussing carbon
structures called “bucky balls” named after architect Buckminster
Fuller’s geodesic domes. Kroto describes properties and mathematical principles
represented by these structures and he discusses his background and winning
the Nobel Prize.
Repository: Archives Center, National Museum of American History,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; archivescenter@si.edu;
202-633-3270; www.americanhistory.si.edu/archives
Collection Number: AC0792
Processing Note: Processed by Alison Oswald, November 2001.
© 2008 by the Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved.
Information for users of
the collection
Conditions Governing Access: The collection
is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must use reference
copies of audio-visual materials. When no reference copy exists,
the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an
“as needed” basis, as resources allow.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use: Copyright
held by the Smithsonian Institution. Collection items available
for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees
concerning copyright restrictions. Reproduction permission from
Archives Center: fees for commercial use.
Preferred Citation: [Title and date of item],
Harry Kroto Innovative Lives Presentation and Interview, Archives
Center, National Museum of American History, box number X, folder
number XX, digital file number XXXXXXXX
In-depth information about the collection
- Administrative/biographical history
Scope and content
System of arrangement
Acquisition information
Custodial history
Access points
Container listing
Harry Kroto (1939-) was born in Wisbech, Cambridegshire, England
and raised and educated in Bolton, Lancashire, England. He attended
Bolton School where he studied art, geography, gymnastics, and
woodwork. He later graduated from the University of Sheffield
earning a BSc degree (1958-1961) and a Ph.D. (1961-1964) in chemistry.
Kroto’s doctorate work focused on “Spectroscopy of
Free Radicals Produced by Flash Photolysis.” Kroto’s
postdoctoral work in electronic and microwave spectroscopy was
conducted at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada,
and at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey studying liquid phase interactions
by Raman Spectroscopy. In 1967, Kroto joined the staff at the
University of Sussex (Brighton) where he became a professor in
1985 and in 1991 was made Royal Society Research Professor. At
Sussex, Kroto began exploring the possible source of carbon chains
in space. Based on this research along with his colleagues Robert
Curl and Richard Smalley, both of Rice University, Kroto received
the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of “fullerenes.”
Named after architect Buckminster Fuller’s soccer-ball shaped
geodesic dome, fullerenes are formed when vaporized carbon condenses
in an atmosphere of inert gas.
The Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention
and Innovation was founded in 1995 at the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of American History through a generous gift from
the Lemelson Foundation. The Center’s mission is: to document,
interpret, and disseminate information about invention and innovation;
to encourage inventive creativity in young people; and to foster
an appreciation for the central role invention and innovation
play in the history of the United States. The Innovative Lives
series brings together museum visitors and, especially, school
aged children, and American inventors to discuss inventions and
the creative process and to experiment and play with hands-on
activities related to each inventor’s product. This collection
was recorded by the Innovative Lives Program of the Jerome and
Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.
This collection contains five (5) hours of original (BetaCam
SP), master (BetaCam SP), reference videos (VHS) and one (1) audio
cassette documenting Harold Kroto, chemist and Nobel Laureate
(Chemistry, 1996). Kroto discusses carbon structures called “bucky
balls” named after architect Buckminster Fuller’s
geodesic domes and describes properties and mathematical principles
represented by these structures. Kroto also discusses his background
and winning the Nobel Prize. Audience participants are students
from Queen Anne School (Upper Marlboro, Maryland) and Nysmith
School for the Gifted (Herndon, Virginia). There are two sets
of reference viewing copies; the Innovative Lives Presentation
was filmed using two different camera angles (camera 1 and camera
2). The content is the same.
- Series 1, Original Videos and Audio Cassette,
2001
- Series 2, Master Videos, 2001
Series 3, Reference Videos and Audio
Cassette, 2001
This collection was recorded by the Innovative Lives Program
of the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention
and Innovation on October 1, 2001.
The collection was transferred to the Archives Center on October
1, 2001.
Subject/Topical:
Chemistry-20th century
Chemists-20th century
Nobel prizes
Subject/Name:
Curl, Robert
Eastman, William
Judd, Michael
Molella, Arthur
Smalley, Richard
Nobel Voices Exhibition
Form/Genre:
Beta Cam SP (videotape format)
Videotapes
Oral history-2000-2010
Interviews-2000-2010
| Box |
Folder |
|
| |
|
SERIES
1, ORIGINAL VIDEOS AND AUDIO CASSETTE, 2001 |
| 1 |
OV 792.1-10 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation and Interview, 2001 October 1
Original
video cassettes
Total Running Time: 5 hours |
| |
OTC 792.1 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation and Interview, 2001 October 1
Audio cassette
Total
Running Time: 71 minutes |
| 2 |
MV 792.1-10 |
SERIES
2, MASTER VIDEOS, 2001 |
| |
|
SERIES
3, REFERENCE VIDEOS AND AUDIO CASSETTE, 2001 |
| 3 and 4 |
RV 792.1 |
Harry Kroto Interview
2001
October 1
Total Running Time: 26:20, Camera 1
Interviewer:
Art Molella, Director, Lemelson Center
Kroto begins by discussing
his background and growing up in Bolton, Lancashire, England.
Bolton is an industrial town in the north of England that
contributed to his interest in technology. Kroto's early childhood
is marked by tinkering with Meccano and Erector sets, and
building and taking apart items. Kroto had several mentors
while in school with Mr. Higginson, an art teacher being the
most important. Discussion of chemistry work and what launched
his interest in chemistry-his doctoral work at the University
of Sheffield. At University, Kroto studied spectroscopy of
free radicals produced by flash photolysis. Further discussion
of Kroto's work in Ottawa, Canada, at the National Research
Council, discovery of C60, and influence of Buckminster Fuller's
work. |
| |
RV 792.2 |
On the topic of science
education Kroto notes that every child should have a good
science background, he's depressed at the drop in science
curriculum in the west and feels that children should be taught
the "philosophy of doubt. Everything presented should be checked
out. Kroto discusses his impulse to play in building a table-size
version of a dome C1000. It was purely a fun model to build.
Shares his thoughts on how children play today. Worries that
children jump to computer technologies and don't work with
their hands enough. Children need to be put in an environment
where they can make things. |
| 3 and 4 |
RV 792.3 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation
2001 October 1
Total Running Time:
28:48, Camera 1
Introductory remarks by Art Molella. Kroto
begins by showing slides to students and asking what they
think a scientist looks like. Various caricatures of scientists
are shown. Kroto breaks down the stereotype associated with
scientists. Discusses chemistry and the molecule nitrosoethane,
the story of bucky balls, and galaxies and stars exploding
and spreading carbon atoms. Demonstrates an algebra theory
of (faces + corners - edges = 2). Shows slides with examples
of pentagonal structures in insects, sea animals, tortoise
shells, and Buckminster Fuller's dome in Montreal, Canada.
|
| |
RV 792.4 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation
2001 October 1
Total Running Time:
30:19, Camera 1
Opens with a discussion of nanotechnology
and shows video footage explaining the construction and properties
of fullerenes. Kroto states that the twenty-first century
will be the century of nanoscale materials. Shows slides of
molecular art-hemoglobin and adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
Question and answer with students:
Did people know they
were using bucky balls when they lit a candle?
Was winning
the Nobel prize your shining moment?
How can your discovery
benefit mankind?
Can superconducting materials be made using
carbon fullerenes?
Can society use C60 to make automobiles
pollute less?
If C60 are on meteorites, are they on other
planets?
Is it better to conduct research independently
or collaboratively? |
| |
RV 792.5 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation
2001 October 1
Total Running Time:
8:56, Camera 1
Closing remarks by Michael Judd, Education
Specialist, Lemelson Center. Nysmith School departs to tour
the Nobel Voices Exhibit; students have Kroto autograph items.
From
9:11 to 29:33 time code, footage of the Nobel Voices Exhibit
begins. |
| 3 and 4 |
RV 792.6 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation
2001 October 1
Total Running Time:
30:12, Camera 2
See RV 792.4 for content. |
| |
RV 792.7 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation
2001 October 1
Total Running Time:
29:41, Camera 2
See RV 792.3 for content. |
| |
RV 792.8 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation
2001 October 1
Total Running Time:
17:57, Camera 2
Footage of Lemelson Center video kiosk with
a student using kiosk and exterior shots of the Lemelson Center
and the National Museum of American History. |
| |
RV 792.9 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation
2001 October 1
Total Running Time:
30:41
Conclusion of Innovative Lives Program and the question
and answer period with students. Footage of Will Eastman,
Project Historian, giving a tour of the Nobel Voices Exhibit
to students and exterior shots of the Lemelson Center exhibit
cases. |
| |
RV 792.10 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation
2001 October 1
Total Running Time:
18:20
Footage of the Nobel Voices Exhibit. |
| 3 |
RTC 792.1 |
Harry Kroto Innovative
Lives Presentation
2001 October 1
Total Running Time:
71 minutes
Audio cassette of presentation |
|
