User:Nickboyle5496

A common accidental or suicidal cause of death is drowning. Thousands die each year this way. This is what forensics is about, finding out the site of drowning, the time since death and to differentiate accidental drowning from suicide by isolating the diatoms in the water and performing tests on them. The victim’s inhalation of fluid obstructs the air passage and this is the essential cause of death. Through the lungs, these organisms enter the blood stream and thereby travel to the various sites of the body including liver, kidney and bone marrow. The organisms that scientists use to find more information on where and when the person died are called diatoms. Diatoms are a kind of unicellular algae. They can be found in a colony or just as a single cell. There are 16000 species of diatoms that have been discovered, but there could be thousands more. The word diatom means, literally, “cut in to two”. The primary feature which is used to distinguish diatoms from other type of algae is the silicified cell wall.

http://www.wikispot.info/2008/09/forensic-uses-of-diatom.html