Diatom Microscopy

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The wafer like object featured above is a diatom.

It was taken from a water sample in the Gulf of Maine and is seen here edge on, as observed through a microscope — think of viewing a galaxy edgewise in a telescope. 

A diatom is an aquatic, photosynthetic algae. 
This one is about 100 microns across; approximately the width of a human hair.

Aquatic plants constitute 10 percent of the Earth’s biomass and may produce as much as 50 percent of the Earth’s oxygen. 

Diatoms may also be very significant in the field of nanotechnology; they produce micro-scale valves that may, someday, be components in solar panels on our roofs.

These little creatures appear in the fossil record as far back as the Jurassic Period – more than 144 million years ago.

—John Stetson

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