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Abstract
“Opinion”, as I understand it, is a platform to encourage the exchange of personal ideas and personal opinions, or to discuss the value of methods and different approaches, such as for instance a “web based taxonomy” (Sterrenburg 2002).
Medlin's (2002) “Opinion” might rather be called a “Minireview” and as such it is highly valuable for students of diatoms, and for teachers as well. The first part in particular, could serve as an introduction to a lecture on diatoms. The second part addresses the question raised in the title of Medlin's article: “why silica or better yet why not silica?”, and here I would like to add some aspects not readily apparent to readers who had not taken part in the 1996 discussion via the Diatom List-server about the use of silica as solidifying cell wall material. Although now globally summarised by Medlin (2002), the link below is for those who are interested in the original contributions and the references given.
http://www.indiana.edu/~diatom/silica.dis
In addition, I would like to comment on some aspects of the diatom's cell biology—based mainly on my own work—where I believe clarification might be helpful to avoid possible future continued misquotations and misunderstandings, and especially to encourage re-investigation. Sentences of Medlin's article (2002) which I believe require comments, follow in quotation marks and underlined.