Biosphere in the blogosphere

I first learned of R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) when I picked up a copy of his amusingly titled book I Seem to be a Verb at a used bookstore near my college. "Bucky" was a green pioneer: he felt that his mission in life was to innovate so as to benefit the greatest number of people by using the fewest resources. He was perhaps most famous for inventing the geodesic dome, which is what prompted this post, but in addition to being a designer and architect, he was a philosopher, poet, visionary, engineer, mathematician, and cosmologist - and also drew a really cool map of the earth. An interesting man - and I just knew the story of his death would be unique. While he was visiting his wife Anne, who was dying of cancer and lay comatose in a Los Angeles hospital, he exclaimed, "She is squeezing my hand!" He stood up, suffered a heart attack, and died an hour later. His wife followed in 36 hours. Their deaths occurred 26 years ago this month.