The diatomaceous silica in the litter could have clouded Dyson's senses.

猫砂里的硅能影响了戴森的嗅觉。

And starting around 3 million years ago, the oceans began to experience a serious drop in diatom diversity.

从大约300万年前开始，海洋开始经历硅多样性的严重下降。

Tiny fossilized skeletons of aquatic creatures called diatoms are swept into the wind and carried westward where they rain down on South America.

被称为硅的水生生物的微小骨骼化石被风吹走并向西飘落在南美洲。

Mr. Bowler says almost half of the oxygen we breathe comes from very small algae called diatoms. These plants live in the part of the water where the sun reaches.

鲍勒我们呼吸的近一半的氧气来名为硅的微小类，这些植物生活在太阳能抵达的水中。

Those plants and animals that do survive usually reproduce very fast and in great numbers. The single-cell plant, the diatom, can multiply itself into a billion new distoms in one month.

那些生存下来的植物和动物通常重新繁衍更快和更多的数量。单细胞植物，像硅，能在一己繁衍一百万新的硅。

Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the diatomaceae: were these created that they might be examined and admired under the higher powers of the microscope?

很少有物体比硅科的微小硅质外壳更美丽：这些物体是为了在更高倍数的显微镜下进行检查和欣赏而创造的吗？

Some of the critters I found were delightful things like seed shrimp and many more beautiful, geometric diatoms. I then went farther afield to camp out in the Dry Valleys for a couple of weeks.

我发现的一些小动物是令人愉快的东西， 例如种子虾和许多更美丽的几何硅。然后我去了更远的地方， 在干谷露营了几星期。