Gun Tanakom 1004

Biology : Osmosis Lab Report

For all living cells, cells need to let things go in and out of them in order to survive because cells
need to produce energy to use. Cells have several ways to make energy, which are glycolysis,
citric acid cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, and some can also do the photosynthesis too. In
order to do those pathways, organic food molecules are one of the requirements. (Cell Energy
and Cell Functions, n.d.) The cells also need other nutrients which come in different forms.
Scientists divide the cell transportation into two main strategies which are passive transport and
active transport. Passive transport is a movement of substances that go in and out of the cell from
higher concentration to lower concentration without using energy. Active transport differs from
passive transport because it is a movement of substances across the membrane from lower
concentration to higher concentration.
According to Taylor, M. (2015), There are three common ways for the substances to go in and
out of the cells without using energy. Firstly, simple diffusion, through the selective permeability
membrane. The phospholipid bilayer allows only hydrophobic nonpolar matters go in and out of
the cell because the big middle part of the phospholipid bilayer is hydrophobic tails. Secondly,
ions and polar molecules cannot move through the lipid bilayer, especially the big molecules.
The matters that cannot move pass directly through the lipid, so they need some facilitate things
to help them which are the channel protein and carrier protein. This is called facilitate
diffusion Some of them have special name such as channel protein that facilitates or help water
transportation is called aquaporins
The last strategy is osmosis. It is the movement of water through the membrane. It usually occurs
when the nutrients cannot move across the selectively permeable membrane. It is simply to
balance the concentration of solution between two parts of the membrane. The force that osmosis
use in transportation of water is osmotic pressure. The pressure is relative to the pure solvent.
The side that has more solute will be the side that has higher osmotic pressure, while the side
with the lower solvent or water will have lower osmotic pressure. High osmotic pressure will
force the water to move to where has less pressure. (Diffusion and Osmosis, n.d.) If both water
and solute can pass membrane, then it will move in opposite direction. The net flow of water will
be equal which is called equilibrium (Bowen, 2010) The side which has more concentration is
called hypertonic solution while the other side which has less concentration is called
hypotonic solution However, if two sides have the same concentration, both of them are the
isotonic solution. In the situation where the solution inside the cell is hypertonic and the solution
outside the cell is hypotonic, the water from outside will be moved into the cell by osmotic
pressure because outside has more water than inside. The cell will swell. On the other hand, In
the situation where the solution inside the cell is hypotonic and the solution outside the cell is
hypertonic, the water from inside will be moved out of the cell by osmotic pressure because the
inside has more water than outside. The cell will shrink. In another situation where inside and
outside the cell are the isotonic solution to each other, the water will move in and out the cell
equally. The cell will be normal.
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In this osmosis lab, the experimenters test the osmosis property of water with different types of
membrane and solution. Four main materials that are needed in this experiment are distilled
water, concentrated salt solution, jelly, and potato. Distilled water and concentrated salt solution
are the representatives of different concentration solution outside the cell. Whereas,
jelly and potato are the representatives of different concentration solution inside the cell.
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APA Citation

Bowen, R. (30 Jan. 2010) Retrieved from

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/misc_topics/osmosis.html

Cell Energy and Cell Functions. (n.d.) Retrieved from

http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/cell-energy-and-cell-functions-14024533

Diffusion and Osmosis. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://hyperphysics.phy-

astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Kinetic/diffus.html

Taylor, M. R. (2015) Study Guide for Campbell Biology. Ithaca, New York: Benjamin
Cummings. Pages 45-47