Because diatom cell walls are comprised of opaline silica—essentially, glass—they remain preserved in sediments even after their organic components have decomposed.

The radiating, kaleidoscopic pattern you see here was once the living glass skeleton – the cell wall – of a single-celled organism called a diatom. These organisms absorb silicon from their ...

As researchers in paleolimnology, the historical study of freshwater sediments, we examine the sediments that settles at the ...