World famous nanotechnology pioneer and Nobel Laureate, Harry Kroto, will present new fullerene results at world conference on laboratory science

DALLAS (Sept. 10, 2012) - Nobel Laureate and nanotechnology pioneer Sir Harold Kroto will present new information from his research on how fullerene molecules are created when he opens the Pittcon conference and expo Sunday, March 17, 2013, in Philadelphia. The most recent fascinating breakthrough is the discovery by Canadian astronomers that the molecule is in some stars.

Kroto is viewed in his field as science royalty. His presentation is titled Exameter Objects to Nanometer Ones and Back Again. "It's going to show just how unexpectedly research on such things as massive clouds of gas, which some of them the biggest objects in the galaxy, they're maybe one-hundred light years in diameter," can now be related to the original discovery of C60 that is so small as to be only one nanometer in diameter.

Kroto says we all can be inspired by the way original studies of carbon chain molecules in the laboratory initiated radioastronomy discoveries in massive interstellar clouds and stars. "Never underestimate what you can find by looking at just fundamental ideas," says Kroto, "just how unpredictable research can be and how important it is to keep open your ideas as far as research is concerned."

Kroto outlined his presentation by phone from his summer home in Lewes, UK, on the ScienceNews Radio Network program, the Promise of Tomorrow with Colonel Mason. The program originates in Dallas, Texas, and is now archived and Webcast for its world audience.

On the program Kroto stressed that these ideas carry "a very important lesson for governments, research advisors, and people of this nature. You must keep fundamental science, let young people who are smart do what they want and that's the way to find the unexpected, and also make the biggest breakthroughs. Because, those breakthroughs that are unexpected are in general much more important than those that are expected."

Pittcon is organized by The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, a Pennsylvania not-for-profit educational corporation which is comprised of the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP) and the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP).

Proceeds from Pittcon fund science education and outreach at all levels, kindergarten through adult. Pittcon donates more than a million dollars a year to provide financial and administrative support for various science outreach activities including science equipment grants, research grants, scholarships and internships for students, awards to teachers and professors, and grants to public science centers, libraries and museums.