Monday, March 23, 2009

Diatoms under a Scanning Electron Microscope


This is a colorized scanning electron microscope image of a sample of freshwater diatoms collected from a creek in Pennsylvania. Diatoms are a type of algae and are commonly found growing on the glass of fish tanks. In nature they are the brown coating on rocks in a stream, or any body of water on earth. There are thousands of types of living diatoms and probably millions of types in the fossil record. The diatoms are mainly constructed from silicon dioxide – commonly called quartz by geologists. This very rugged and stable material allows the skeletons of these microscopic animals to become fossils.

It is near impossible to sum up the topic of diatoms in a short space. As a group they have a very rich scientific history as they have shaped both geology and biology studies. Specimens mounted on microscope slides were viewed for entertainment in Victorian England. There is little doubt that their variation in form and shape makes them interesting to study.

4 comments:

georgexu316 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
georgexu316 said...

This is a better one:

http://tinyurl.com/2xya9o

simmers said...

hey! I have the chance to pick an old Jeol Model JSM-35C SEM for a couple of hundred bucks.
If something blows out on it, are there spare parts available?
thanks!
John

Photsssss said...

Hello sir,
i am a science undergraduate student who is interested in photography...

i didn't knew that there is a field of science photography.. after coming across your blog i did some research about the topic.

but there are some unclear question in my mind like, is there a course offered by any institute?

can u please help me out?


it would be a great help


HEMANT