I would like a comparison of methods for processing ancient diatoms.

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 27 Aug 2005 00:32 PDT

Would this paper be sufficient for your needs?  It addresses methods
of processing diatoms, and contains a relevant set of references.

"A guide to the extraction of fossil diatoms from lithified or
partially consolidated sediments," by J.V. Hinchey and O.R. Green
(Micropaleontology 40(4):pp. 368-372) (1994)
Oxford Eprints
http://eprints.ouls.ox.ac.uk/archive/00000990/01/Micropal_1994.pdf

If this paper is sufficient, I would be happy to post it as answer.

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Clarification of Question by coremonger-ga on 27 Aug 2005 05:54 PDT

This is a partial answer to my question.  I am aware of at least 3
procedures, including a microwave technique for heating, and the use
of organic acids instead of HCl and HNO3 for chemical breakdown.  I'd
be willing to pay a partial payment or you may research a little more
to provide a more complete answer.  Is that acceptable?

Regards,

Clif

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 27 Aug 2005 10:10 PDT

I suppose my reply depends in part on what you want.  You could lower
the price of the question to the amount that you think appropriate for
my partial answer.  You could then post a separate question (or
questions) to seek further information.  Or you could keep this as one
question, and hope that I or another Researcher can come up with a
complete answer.

My sense is that a complete answer would require me to visit a good
science library, and summarize technical works in a field in which I
do not have expertise -- unless I were fortunate enough to find a
prepackaged answer (i.e., a document or documents thoroughly comparing
methods for processing ancient diatoms) on the Web.  So my tendency is
not to attempt substantial further research.  But I could try a little
more research to find a more complete answer.

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Clarification of Question by coremonger-ga on 27 Aug 2005 15:03 PDT

If $100 is acceptable, submit the answer.

Thanks,

Clif

Hello Clif,

$100 is acceptable.  To make the answer official, here is the
information from my initial post.

This paper addresses methods of processing diatoms, and contains a
relevant set of references.

"A guide to the extraction of fossil diatoms from lithified or
partially consolidated sediments," by J.V. Hinchey and O.R. Green
(Micropaleontology 40(4):pp. 368-372) (1994)
Oxford Eprints
http://eprints.ouls.ox.ac.uk/archive/00000990/01/Micropal_1994.pdf

- justaskscott


Search strategy --

Searched on Google and Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) for:

"processing * diatoms"

[I also tried other searches for diatom processing information before
finding this paper, as well as searches for references listed in this
paper.  The search I have mentioned led me to the paper I have cited.]

Although the answer was partial, it was first rate.