Carbon films are a type of fossil, or preservation. They are thin film coatings which consist predominantly of the chemical element carbon, which include plasma polymer films, amorphous carbon films (diamond-like carbon, DLC), CVD diamond films as well as graphite films. The soft tissues of organisms are made largely of organic carbon compounds. Sometime fossils contain only carbon. Fossils usually form when sediments bury a dead organism. As sediment piles up, the organism's remains are subjected to pressure and heat. These conditions force gases and liquids from the body. A thin film of carbon residue is left, forming a silhouette of the original organism called a carbon film.
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“All the old supports going, gone, this man reaches out a hand to steady himself on a ledge of rough brick that is warm in the sun: his hand feeds him messages of solidity, but his mind messages of destruction, for this breathing substance, made of earth, will be a dance of atoms, he knows it, his intelligence tells him so: there will soon be war, he is in the middle of war, where he stands will be a waste, mounds of rubble, and this solid earthy substance will be a film of dust on ruins.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)