Diatoms — tiny phytoplankton that are responsible for a fifth of all energy converted into matter by plants — may have become important much earlier in the development of Earth’s ocean ecosystems and ...

We've all seen tiny boats inside tiny glass bottles, and miniature sculptures the size of a pinhead. But what about when art gets down to a cellular scale? The art of arranging microscopic algae-type ...

Diatoms account for a large proportion of the phytoplankton found in the water, and live both in the open sea and in freshwater lakes. By reviving 100-year-old spores that had laid buried and inactive ...

Diatoms – unicellular organisms – have long been known to science, but their overwhelming appetite for nitrate is a new discovery made in a global survey. Diatoms -- unicellular organisms -- have long ...

If you know what diatoms are, it's probably because of their beauty. These single-celled algae found on the ocean floor have ornate glassy shells that shine like jewels under the microscope. Subscribe ...

Fresh insight into the mechanisms underlying the global impact of diatoms came from the availability of the roughly 34 megabases (Mb) of DNA sequence for the nuclear, plastid and mitochondrial genomes ...

An area of the remote Southern Ocean that's long confused ocean color satellites by reflecting large amounts of turquoise-colored light appears to be full of silica-rich diatoms, according to a new ...

May 3 (UPI) --The world's smallest plants, single-cell organisms called diatoms, provide exceptional carbon capture services, according to researchers. According to a new study, published Monday in ...

If all goes to plan, the long metal rod of the core sampler will cut down through the soil of the salt marsh like a knife through warm butter. Mike Priddy and David Bruce take their places in the ...

Ocean acidification doesn’t just erode calcium carbonate shells. It can also slow the rate at which tiny algae called diatoms build their beautiful, intricate silica cell walls. Thinner walls mean ...

Andrew Alverson is a biologist and expert on diatoms at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. About 20 percent of ...