Edible seaweed Edible seaweed Edible seaweed, or sea vegetables, are algae that can be eaten and used in the preparation of food. They typically contain high amounts of fiber. They may belong to one of several groups of multicellular algae: the red algae, green algae, and brown algae. Seaweeds are also harvested or cultivated for the extraction of polysaccharides such as alginate, agar and carrageenan, gelatinous substances collectively known as hydrocolloids or phycocolloids. Hydrocolloids have attained commercial significance, especially in food production as food additives. The food industry exploits the gelling, water-retention, emulsifying and other physical properties of these hydrocolloids. Most edible
Function field of an algebraic variety the set of all meromorphic functions on the variety. (Like all meromorphic functions, these take their values in formula_1.) Together with the operations of addition and multiplication of functions, this is a field in the sense of algebra. For the Riemann sphere, which is the variety formula_2 over the complex numbers, the global meromorphic functions are exactly the rational functions (that is, the ratios of complex polynomial functions). In classical algebraic geometry, we generalize the second point of view. For the Riemann sphere, above, the notion of a polynomial is not defined globally, but simply with respect to an affine