Carbon solids have been utilized by man since prehistoric times, first as a source of heat and then for other purposes; these are used as key markers for different civilizations. The essential role played by the use of coal mines during the industrial revolution as a main source of energy is a crucial point, which was then expanded through the development of carbochemistry.

This book begins by describing the use of solid carbons as traditional materials, for example in the steel industry and for ceramics, then moving on to their technological uses such as active carbons and carbon fibers, etc., before discussing nanocarbons, the jewel in the crown of contemporary technological science. The final chapter analyzes the current economic and social impact of carbon solids.

This special issue of "Carbon," a collection of reviewed papers, was presented at Symposium A, Fullerenes and Carbon Based Materials at the combined 1997 International Conference on Applied Materials/European Materials Research Society Spring meeting (ICAM'97/E-MRS'97) held in Strasbourg (France) from 16-20 June 1997.

140 presentations were given at the conference in seven different sessions. The most extensively addressed research fields were carbon materials in general, diamond-like carbon, pristine, polymeric and endohedral fullerenes, nanotubes, and carbonitrides.

Of accepted manuscripts, the largest number of contributions is dedicated to carbon materials in general and to fullerenes. Highlights in the former are the discussions on hydrogen-free carbons and on hard carbon coatings. In the fullerenes group many new results on polymeric structures and on endohedrally-doped higher fullerenes are reported.

The field of carbon nanotubes is strongly represented with reports on new techniques for the production of the tubes and where the analyses by scanning probe microscopy and light scattering are the central problems. Carbonitrides as well as a few contributions from related molecular materials like cubanes or oligophenylenes are included.

The symposium proved to be a valuable venue where new scientific and technological problems in the field of new materials were reported.

It is well known that solid carbons can be found in various guises with different forms of bulk phases (graphites, diamonds and carbynes) as well as more molecular forms (fullerenes, nanotubes and graphenes) resulting from recent discoveries.

The cause of this rich polymorphism is analyzed in the first part of this book (chapters 1-5) with the propensity of carbon atoms for forming different types of homopolar chemical bonds associated with variable coordination numbers. Precursor organic molecules and parent compounds are also described to establish specific links with this rich polymorphism.

Then in a second part (chapters 6-10) a comparative review of the main classes of bulk physical properties is presented. This approach emphasizes in particular the electronic behavior of (pi) polyaromatic systems organized in plane and curved atomic sheets. Finally in a third part (chapters 11-15) the surface and interface characteristics are introduced together with the texture and morphology of these multiscale carbon materials. An overview of the main field of applications is related showing the large use and interest for these solids.