Welcome to You Ask Andy

 

Jay Thurston, age 15, Victoria, B.C., for the questions

Are diatoms made of atoms?

Everything is made of atoms, everything living and everything non‑.living fill plants and animals, all solids' liquids and gases are made of atoms. Even the invisible air is made of atoms. The moon, the sun and the stars are made of atoms and there are a few atoms and atomic particles scattered throughout the vastness of so‑called empty space.

Diatoms are the smallest of water plants, ~~ few typos are just big enough for our eyes to see. The smallest measure about 1,000 to an inch, Several thousand. average sized diatoms can crowd onto the head of a pin. Yet it takes many millions of atoms to mike even the smallest diatom.

Each living diatom is a one‑celled plant. The cell is filled with jelly‑like protoplasm. This is the magic stuff which fills the cells of all living plants and animals, Nothing can live without it, for the chemicals within protoplasm hold the secret of life itself. Around its soft cells the little diatom builds a tiny house harder than granite. This shell is in two equal parts joined with a belt around the waist,,

The atoms from which the diatom is made are taken from the water. Plain water, of course, is composed of atoms of hydrogen and oxygen. But the waters of the rivers, lakes and seas are far more than plain, pure water. A11 sorts of chemicals are dissolved in them. These chemicals are made of atoms, some of which are used to build diatoms.

The magic protoplasm which fills the living cell contains atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and certain other chemicals. Certain of the atoms within the protoplasm combine to form molecules. Some of these molecules contain perhaps 2,000 atoms. We do not yet understand these complex molecules. But certain chemicals within protoplasm make it possible for a cell to live, grow and multiply. And protoplasm gives the orders about how these things shall be done.

The shell of the diatom is made of atoms of silica. This is the chemical from which hard, gritty shell, is made quartz, too, is made mostly of silica  and it is the hardest of tile common stones. Small as it is, the diatom does not build its shell carelessly. Over 10,000 different diatoms are known, a ach more beautiful than the next.

The diatom usually multiplies by dividing in two around the waist. Each new diatom then gets busy and grows a new half shell. Some diatoms multiply by spores. One of these fellows can produce millions of new diatoms in a few days. All of them will gather the atoms they need from the waters in which they live. They will follow orders from the protoplasm and build these atoms into new diatoms,

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