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Sept. 22- 2004 – It took a while, but the U.S. post office finally delivered for R. Buckminster Fuller.
About two decades ago, nanoscientists gave the visionary inventor, architect and poet their stamp of approval by naming a molecule in his honor. The soccer ball-shaped molecule, buckminsterfullerene, reminded co-discoverer Sir Harry Kroto of Fuller’s geodesic domes. Buckyballs, as the multi-syllabic, all-carbon molecules are now called, proved to be a catalyst for nanoscience and nanotechnology.
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This summer, the U.S. Postal Service decided Fuller rated first-class treatment as well. The service released a commemorative 37-cent stamp to recognize Fuller’s revolutionary designs during ceremonies on July 12, what would have been Fuller’s 109th birthday.
The release also marked the 50th anniversary of Fuller’s patent for the geodesic dome, the striking construction that today graces Disney’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla., and in 1967 wowed visitors at the World’s Fair in Montreal.
California’s Stanford University, home to the Fuller Archives, played host to an unveiling that included astronaut and admirer Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Fuller’s daughter, Allegra Fuller Snyder. About 300 people attending got a first glimpse of the stamp design, an overlay of a geodesic dome on Bucky’s dome.
The image is borrowed from a painting by Boris Artzybasheff that had appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1964.
The postal service allowed Stanford to keep the framed, poster-size stamp used in the ceremony, according to Kelly Morris, the university library’s assistant director for stewardship. Postage free.