What is difference between Osmosis and Diffusion?
Osmosis is the movement of a solvent across a semi permeable membrane into a more dilute solution of the solvent. The semi permeable membrane prevents the solute from passing through the membrane. The original osmosis experiment used water and wine. Later experimenters found the same behavior using a sugar water solution instead of wine. Various …. Read More
Osmosis History
We recently requested a professional review for our book “Osmosis: The Molecular Theory”. That was again an interesting experience. We have had the opportunity to find reviewers who are incompetent or dishonest. Sometimes it is difficult to spot the difference from a short conversation. So, we will review osmosis history once again. Osmosis was discovered …. Read More
Biological Osmosis
The osmosis experiment demonstrated that water flows uphill through a membrane from the pure water side into the wine. A large pressure applied to the wine stopped the flow of water into the wine. Later experiments showed that a sugar water solution could replace the wine. This led to Van’t Hoff’s theory for osmosis that …. Read More
Our Amazing Kidneys
We have proposed that osmosis is directly related to vapor pressure and that free vapor molecules exist in liquids and solids. The quantity of these free molecules is in proportion to the vapor pressure value. The net flow of free molecules through a porous membrane is the called osmosis. Flow through porous membranes may also …. Read More
Osmosis flow for Vesicles and Cells
I recently learned of the 2013 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine shared by James Rothman, Randy Schekman and Thomas Sudhof, for their work on improving the understanding of structure and function of cell vesicles. A vesicle is a small fluid-filled membrane sac that occurs both within and outside of cells. Problems within these vesicles …. Read More
Vapor Pressure
Others have suggested that vapor pressure is the driving force for osmosis, they were slapped in the face also. Osmotic pressure is approximately 140 times greater than vapor pressure. We asked the question what is vapor pressure? Frankel (1943) suggested that liquids and solids can be represented as crystal lattice structures with molecules at the …. Read More
Reverse Osmosis
REVERSE OSMOSIS The Osmosis experiment has intrigued many people for years. Water flowed uphill through a membrane into wine. Water flow stops when a high pressure (osmotic pressure) is applied to the wine. Further increases in pressure on the wine will cause pure water to flow from the wine to the water. This is known …. Read More