R. Buckminster Fuller was best known for his geodesic domes. This fact has both helped and hampered our efforts to draw attention to his synergetic geometry, the "invention behind the inventions." Scientists will typically make the link between the shape of a virus or carbon molecule, and the dome's distinctive architecture, but then stop short of exploring the underlying tetrahedral geometry, because "architecture" is not virology or chemistry, and because "synergetics" is not in their vocabulary.