Word: silica
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Optical glass made without silica (sand or quartz)-"almost as revolutionary," says Eastman Kodak Co., "as if someone had discovered how to make steel without iron." It is compounded of three rare metals: tantalum, tungsten, lanthanum...
Diatoms are the grass of the waters-the major source of energy and sustenance for marine life. A few thousandths of an inch across, the diatom's jewel-like silica case encloses a drop of protoplasm. In it chlorophyll magically manufactures organic matter out of sunlight, carbon dioxide and water. As this photosynthesis proceeds, diatoms multiply by splitting. Though each diatom is invisible, they outweigh in volume and importance all other sea plants combined, including seaweeds which grow as big as oaks...