Diatoms: Unicellular Organisms

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This is a view through a microscope. You're looking at an area that's about two millimeters in diameter. Within it you can see several species of marine diatom. Diatoms are unicellular organisms that live in a shell made of glass. It's called a frustule. They build their frustules themselves using silica collected from their environment. A solid glass shell can be a good thing when you're at the bottom of the food chain. They're photosynthetic, meaning they live by harvesting energy from sunlight. Diatoms come in two forms: pennate, and centric. You can see both in this image. Over on the left are three centric diatoms, their frustules are decorated with spiky protrusions at each end. Towards the bottom right there is another centric diatom,