Customer Reviews

Diatoms: Biology and Morphology of the Genera

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The classic work "Diatoms: Biology and Morphology of the Genera" by Round, Crawford and Mann has been usually beyond the means of the average diatom hobbyist. At over $300 for the hardbound edition (which also had a rather bad binding) this monumental tome was usually wanted, but might strain the budget of even professionals or students working in the field. Now the publisher, Cambridge University Press, has come out with a softbound version that is within the reach of most microscope hobbyists, as well as those who study algae professionally.

And what a magnificent volume it is, with hundreds of black and white light and scanning electron microscope photographs and detailed discussions of all the known diatom genera. The introduction is thorough and the book is in short a great reference for the study of these fascinating life forms.

The authors do make one (probably necessary) compromise with quality in that they do not provide metric scales with their photographs. They offer a justification for this and indeed it would have been time-consuming to place scales on all the photos. However, these scales are useful, if perhaps less so with genera than species, to at least give the reader an idea of the size involved.

The average reader might say "who cares about microscopic algae"?, but they would be overlooking the very great contribution diatoms and other "algae" make to the earth's primary production and oxygen supply. Also, the diatom's opaline skeletons (which are mostly shown in this book) are quite beautiful, as are the living organisms.

If you have any interest in the tiny things that make life on earth possible, this book will open your eyes to their complexity and beauty. If you should own a microscope, there are worse things you could do with it (such as leave it in storage!) than to spend some time examining these wonderful organisms.

Excelente monografía sobre la morfología, modo de vida y clasificación de las diatomeas, con numerosas imágenes en blanco y negro, realizadas a través del microscopio óptico y de microscopio electrónico de barrido-

This book has thousands of great and very detailed Electron microscope photos and the information is easy to understand and follow as well as connect with the pictures. Expertly written and presented information.