Neha R. - Tutor

Algae are autotrophic i. e. They can produce their own food in presence of sunlight. Whereas fungi are heterotrophic i. e. They depend on dead and decaying organisms. Algae need sunlight & water so they grow in places where they get both like river banks (freshwater) or other water body surfaces even saltwater. Fungi stay away from sunlight, they grow in moist, damp, dark places. Algae can range from unicellular to multicellular with single nucleus whereas fungi can be unicellular to multicellular with a single nucleus or many nucleus i. e. Multinucleate. Algae have cell wall made-up of mainly cellulose & fungi's cell wall is madeup of chitin. Algae contains plastics in their cell which fungi lack. Both belong to domain eukaryota but algae belongs to kingdom protista & fungi belongs to kingdom fungi. Algae are non-parasitic but fungi are parasitic. Reproduction is asexual in both but fungi form spores which algae don't. Examples of algae are oscillatoria (BGA), chara, sargassum etc. Examples of fungi are puccinia, yeast, mushrooms, aspergillus etc.

Method for refining metals such as germanium is Zone Refining method.

Principle: when an impure metal is heated & allowed to cool the pure metal will crystallize the impurities will remain in molten state.

Method: the impure metal is converted in rods. The rods are heated at one end with a circular rotar. A narrow zone of rod is heated. Then the rotar moves further in the rod. Each time heating a small zone. The pure part of the metal recrystallizes whereas the impure form remains in molten state which can be cut out. This process is repeated several times to get pure metal.