Talks to Watch

Diatoms: Tiny Factories You Can See From Space

812K views · Aug 12, 2019 · 7:44 · 2 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2020–2024

An episode of Journey to the Microcosmos, hosted by Hank Green, about diatoms, single-celled algae with glass shells. It covers their role in producing a large share of Earth's oxygen and their uses in beer filtering, paint and kitty litter.

Why Hacker News points people here: HN commenters recommend the series as an excellent, accessible introduction to microscopic life, using this episode as the diatom primer.

“I recently learned about them from an excellent Journey to the Microcosmos video”HN comment, 2024

What Hacker News said 3

Strongly recommendsjacobolusMay 2020

“I highly recommend the YouTube series Journey to the Microcosmos”

Diatoms produce a quarter to half of Earth's oxygen, shown in video

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For anyone interested in learning about phytoplankton and other microorganisms, I highly recommend the YouTube series Journey to the Microcosmos , link For example this video about diatoms, which are responsible for a quarter to half of the oxygen produced on earth, this video link Seeing high-quality video of things moving around gives a much more visceral impression than just reading text interspersed with static images, in my opinion.

in “East Australian Humpback whale bounces back from near extinction” · view on HN
RecommendsscghostSep 2024

“I recently learned about them from an excellent Journey to the Microcosmos video”

Introduction to diatoms from Journey to the Microcosmos

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Diatoms are fascinating. I recently learned about them from an excellent Journey to the Microcosmos video: this video

Cites itdrranOct 2020

Higher magnification microscopy footage

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> So many of the images that are captivating me have been taken at between 50 and 100 times magnification. 300-600x magnification is much better. this video

in “The Nikon Small World Competition” · view on HN