The music industry rewards recordings of which a certain number of units have been sold or streamed by means of a recording certification system. The categories of award are named after precious materials like gold, platinum and diamonds. The first gold record for an LP was awarded to Harry Belafonte in 1957 for Calypso (1956), the first album to sell over one million copies. Silicon Records are mounted silicon wafers the size of 12-inch LP vinyl records. Every silicon wafer has a different diatom printed on it, rewarding them for their extraordinary ability to transform light into energy. Diatoms are single-celled-algae, unique in being encased a in silica cell wall. Diatom species are estimated to number around 100,000.
