Many Diatoms move under their own power. Strangely, there is no widely accepted explanation of how. One hypothesis is that they pump water in and out through pores, sort of a water jet effect. Somewhere in my Diatom videomicrographs is a movie of a tiny boat-shaped Diatom pushing a giant Diatom that I calculated to be around 1,000X its mass. Somewhat like a swimmer pushing a 120,000-lb boat.
Can diatoms in fact move independently?
Ivanov1690 3 years ago
Many Diatoms move under their own power. Strangely, there is no widely accepted explanation of how. One hypothesis is that they pump water in and out through pores, sort of a water jet effect. Somewhere in my Diatom videomicrographs is a movie of a tiny boat-shaped Diatom pushing a giant Diatom that I calculated to be around 1,000X its mass. Somewhat like a swimmer pushing a 120,000-lb boat.
WLanier 3 years ago