Carbon is one of the most common building blocks of nature.
For centuries chemists believed that pure carbon could only be found on Earth in two forms, diamond and graphite. This episode of NOVA documents the experiments that led to this discovery and the subsequent competition between scientific teams to confirm the existence of Carbon 60, isolate a sample of it, and determine the structure and properties of a Carbon 60 molecule. Before watching, you may want to review or introduce some basic chemistry terms, such as element, compound, and chemical bond. If you have a periodic table of elements available, use it as a visual aid. Locate carbon on the table and explain to students that carbon is an element, but it is found most often as a component in many common compounds.