"And they'll ask "What's she smiling about?"" "DIATOMS And a ship with eight sails" "And 50 cannons" "Will be at the quay" "And a ship" "With eight sails" "And 50 cannons" "Will be at the quay" "It looks more like an oiltanker than a ship with eight sails." "No, Ìt's a diatom hÌghly magnified." " How does it get around?" " No one knows." "Since 1703, the first time a diatom was seen thanks to a new instrument called a microscope, countless hypotheses have been put forth concerning its locomotion." "The diatom is a simple cell whose inner walls are filled with silica." "This forms a sort of skeleton pierced by holes and cracks, as shown in these electronic photos magnified 10,000 times." "This ornamentation is characteristic of the species." "Water is constantly absorbed through the skeleton, and a sticky mucÌlage is constantly emitted, carrying off the particles around the diatom or allowing it to glide if a support is available." "Yes, I see dirty spots on its back." "A back that becomes its front when it glides in the other direction." "The center of the ship ?" "Yes, the command post." "The nucleus of the cell is just underneath." "Everything is arranged symmetrically around the center." "Each species of diatom, whether stationary or mobile, and regardless of its shape, is comprised of a connecting top and bottom,- the valves," "Depending on a head-on or profile view, their appearance is quite different." "What a sudden turnabout!" "And this one with lit portholes, rolling from side to side, as if on crutches." "Perhaps it's supporting itself on the mucilage emitted through the orifices of its skeleton." "And this one that's rising up?" "They weigh nothing in the water." "Their energy comes from sunlight, chemically transformed by the colored parts, the plastids, which we see clearly here." "Down to the tiniest species measuring .001 millimeter, all diatoms divide constantly," "They disperse... or they gather." "For millennia their remains have formed more than a third of the earth's surface." "They're one element in the formation of petroleum." "ELF was the first company to record, at a depth of 984 feet, the formation of petroleum in the oilfields off PoÌnte Noire in the People's Republic of the Congo." "The powderized silica from their skeletons stabilizes dynamite until it explodes... and is used in the finest polishes for metal, glass, and teeth." "To establish the quality of a microscope lens, one uses their skeletons." "Two examples with charming names,- Amphiprora... and Surirella." "It sounds like snob headquarters." "Campylodiscus." "Some diatoms isolate themselves with their mucilage... or they form permanent colonies." "Real golden gems!" "Other diatoms create furrows in which they move in clusters... until leaving... via the open end of the furrow." "Diatoms are one of the foundations of the foodchain and serve as food for so-called "primitive" animals, as well as others." "Infusoria." "That's a seal?" "No, Ìt's a worm." "And so are those.... and those too." "Looks like they're emptying a garbage can." "This jerky crustacean is an ostracode." "And this tiny arthropod" "A nervous breakdown?" "No, that's just how it is." "Diatoms stick to its feet with their mucÌlage." "Some diatoms look flat... but actually they're folded like envelopes." "It becomes particularly clear watchÌng them climb around this algae." "The diatom's locomotion is as mysterious as that of many other creatures, such as oscillary algae, which constantly corkscrew." "Here are the Bacillaria-." "connected diatoms who move together from one fixed endpoint, spontaneously and unpredictably." "A beanpole." "A fence." "A jetty." "Doing the splits." "On stilts." "When Bacillaria were discovered in 1783, they were given the horrÌble name of Vibrio paxillifer." "Their movement is the sum of the movements of the individuals sometimes more than a hundred which have composed the coloni through successive divisions." "They slide on top of each other, till they reach the end," "Like a zipper," "But one that will never unzip." "Besides the ultramicroscopic filaments that bind them by frolicking in their glue, we might wonder whether a higher order than mere chance unites them." "A final hypothesis might be crystalloid bodies."