75
The Stereotyped Image of the Scientist Among
Students of Different Countries: Evoking the
Alchemist?
Leopoldo de Meis, Rita de C~tssia P Machado~', Paulina
Lustosa'~, Val~ria R Soares~, Maria Teresa Caideira'[" and
Lucia Fonseca'~"
lnstituto de Ci~ncias Biom~dicas
Departamento de Bioquimica
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, 21910
Brazil
Introduction
The modern university is constantly faced with the
contraposition of science and technology versus
humanism. It is commonly believed that humanistic values
have not followed the scientific-technological develop-
ment of the last centuries. Thus, the science-technology
binomial essentially deals with the objectives and material
world, with little space for the spiritual and subjective
values demanded by humanism.
Trying to analyze these relationships, in previous
studies we have attempted to describe how science is
envisaged by students and by scientists in different stages
of their careers. ~.2 One finding was the university students
(undergraduate and graduate), and scientists whose
careers had not yet developed, characterized science as an
activity primarily involving logic and methodology. In
their minds, science allowed little space for subjective
factors such as intuition, imagination, and creativity.
Established scientists, in contrast, had a concept that
involved a balance between subjective and cosmic factors
on the one hand and logic and methodology on the other.
These studies suggested that students and scientists
early in their careers have a stereotyped view of science,
different from that expressed by more experienced scien-
tists. This stereotype was already present in the students'
first years at the university, suggesting that it is formed
before entering university. At the time of career choice,
this stereotype could have an important influence on
young adults. Now in both developed and developing
countries the number of university graduates in science
does not meet the demand. 3-7 Possibly misinformation
plays a role in the young people's rejection of a scientific
career. To clarify this point and to try to establish the role
of schools in this process, we examined how the image of
the scientist was perceived by school students.
In order to avoid the restriction vocabulary might have
on the replies, we decided to use drawings, a natural way
of expression for children. The basis was that students
asked to draw a scientist would depict some of the traits
they considered to be characteristic of a scientist. We
observed that even students who had not yet studied
~ Recipient of a Fellowship from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvi-
m e n t o Cientffico e Tecnol6gico; ~tfrom Financiadora de Estudos e
Projetos
B I O C H E M I C A L EDUCATION 21(2) 1993
science as a separate discipline, held a stereotype of the
scientist which was not greatly modified during high
school years. The scientist was generally depicted as a
chemist and this stereotype was evidenced by students
from various countries with different cultural back-
grounds. It seems likely that the persistence of this image
into the later school years could influence the adolescent
choosing a career.
Although during the course of this work we were not
able to identify which factors contributed to the gener-
ation of this image, to our surprise it was possible to show
that neither media (video, films and comics) nor school-
books seemed to play an important role in formation of
the stereotype.
Procedures
Brazil Most of our work was based on Brazilian students
in the 5th grade of primary school and the second grade of
high school, corresponding to the 6th and llth grades in
the USA, as they will be referred to throughout this study.
Their ages were 10-13 and 16-17 years. The 6th grade
was selected as being the first year when children are
exposed to science in a systematic way. The llth grade
was selected because at this stage students are about to
decide on a career. The students were asked to draw a
scientist.
In order to evaluate the influence of iconography on
children, we chose at random four series of Brazilian
science text books for 6th- to 9th-graders. Brazilian llth-
grade students were asked one question: "What fields of
knowledge lead to a career in science?" Finally drawings
of scientists were solicited from scientists.
Other Countries To see whether different educational
systems influence the children's choice of an image,
drawings of scientists were solicited from students of the
USA, France and Nigeria, matched for age and grades.
To explore a possible role of the media in creating the
image of the scientist, 31 science fiction movies and 25
comic books were analyzed.
Results
The children's stereotype Most ten-year-old children
already had a very clear idea about what a scientist is (Fig
1) and there were no hesitations or difficulties in relation
to the drawings. The students generally showed the
scientist in a descriptive and literal way, surrounded by
instruments. Some of the drawings were very simple,
indicating only a few characteristics. Others, in contrast,
were detailed. The instruments were mainly glassware
(flasks, test tubes, etc) suggesting that the scientist was a
chemist or a biochemist. In some samples, glassware
appeared in more than 80% of the drawings. Computers
and machines in general, as well as images of nature
(countryside, animals and plants in their habitats) were
uncommon.
Table 1 summarizes the results for the 6th grade
students from Brazil, France, the USA and Nigeria and
76

"(c)

(b)
N_ . , .

(d)

_ .

- -

Figure 1 Selection of drawings made by lO-year old children from (a) Brazil, (b) France, (c) USA and (d) Nigeria

Table 1 Frequency of elements appearing in 6th-grade Table 2 shows those for the llth grade. Examples of the
students' drawings of scientists in four countries drawings are shown in Fig 2. The quality of the drawings
changed little between one grade and another. The
Frequency of appearance (%) drawings by French children showed a pattern that sets
Image Brazil France USA Nigeria
Glassware 81.0 54.0 62.4 63.7 Table 2 Frequency of elements appearing in llth-grade
Microscope 11.8 4.0 8.9 7.1 students' drawings of scientists in four countries
Computer 5.9 6.0 2.6 3.2
Formulas 2.5 10.0 1.9 0.5 Frequency of appearance (%)
Space 9.7 4.0 0 1.1 Image Brazil France USA Nigeria
Nature ~' 3.4 0 0 2.2
Glassware 51.4 33.8 53.9 97.1
Ideas u 2.1 8.0 0 0
Microscope 8.2 1.2 1.0 1.4
Questions c 2.5 4.0 0 0.5
Computer 6.6 1.2 3.9 0
Other instruments 14.3 6.0 14.6 37.4
Formulas 10.9 31.3 11.0 0
Without instruments 3.4 38.0 25 6.6
Space 4.4 0 2.0 0
Nature 2.2 0 0 0
Number of drawings 237 50 154 157
Ideas 4.9 7.5 1.0 0
~"Nature' includes landscapes, animals and plants. Laboratory animals Questions 4.9 7.5 0 1.4
were not included in this item. Sun, moon and stars were counted as Other instruments 30.1 3.8 15.7 1.4
'nature' elements when they appeared as part of the landscape. They Without instruments 12.0 58.8 37.3 2.8
were counted as "space" elements when they appeared as part of an
interplanetary view, generally associated with telescopes, spaceships etc.
b,ldeas, were represented by a lightbulb, near the scientists' head, or by Number of drawings 183 80 102 70
the word "Eureka'. ~'Ouestions' were represented by question marks

BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 21(2) 1993

 77

'°'

170 Brazilian students: "What fields of knowledge lead to

a career in science?". The choice of fields was deliberately
(d) left open. Most of the students referred to chemistry as a
field of knowledge that led to a career in science. Other
fields were referred to less frequently (Table 3), the most
infrequent being computer sciences (3 students). These
data seem to indicate that children have a stereotyped
view of scientists and the practice of science which cannot
be attributed to the educational system since:
(1) The stereotype is already formed before there is any
systematic study of sciences (6th grade),
(2) It does not change after formal training ( l l t h grade),
and
(3) It follows the same pattern in countries with different
educational systems.
In an attempt to discover the origin of this stereotype,
we analysed images in films, comic books and school-

Figure 2 Selection of drawings made by l lth grade children

from (a) Brazil, (b) France, (c) USA and (d) Nigeria Table 3 Fields of knowledge that are likely to
lead to a career in science
them apart from those of the other countries: there were
fewer drawings of glassware, and a significant percentage Fields Frequency of answers
had no instruments at all. In the l l t h grade, drawings
without apparatus were more prevalent than those with Chemistry 145
glassware, representing more than half of the sample. Physics 80
Mathematical formulae were common in the sample from Biology 48
French schools, perhaps related to their tradition in Medicine 36
maths. Electronics 25
The connection between the idea of 'scientist' and the Mathematics 21
image of glassware was so pronounced that we decided to Psychology 7
explore it further. This was done with Brazilian students Astronomy 7
of the l l t h grade. These older students should be more Computer Science 3
articulate and better able to discriminate among the
options of different careers, since they were about to Number of answers 372
make their own professional choices.
The question 'what field of knowledgelead to a career in
To determine whether the stereotype of the drawings science' was addressed to 170 students. Most students
really corresponded to the image of a chemist, we asked referred to more than one field in a total of 372 answers

BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 21(2) 1993

78

books, The distribution of elements in science textbook Table 5 Frequency of elements appearing in movies and
illustrations (Table 4) shows that the majority was related comics involving scientists
to nature (animals, plants, landscapes) and not to glass-
ware which usually appeared as a minor component: Frequency of appearance (%)
computers did not show up at all. In the children's Films Comics
drawings (see Tables 1 and 2) images of nature were either Image Films Scenes Stories Frames
nonexistent or infrequent (max 3.4%). This suggests that
Glassware 19.4 5.7 28.0 14.8
the stereotype was not formed in school. However, all the
Microscope 19.4 5.7 16.0 3. l
books were Brazilian, and thus the results should not be
Computer 58.1 50.0 68.0 60.2
extrapolated unreservedly to other countries.
Space 19.4 9.4 12.0 11.7
Regarding the media, 106 scenes from 31 movies and
Nature 19.4 5.7 0 0
128 frames in 25 stories from comic magazines were
Machinery 67.7 23.6 48.0 10.2
selected for analysis, based on the fact that a scientist
Without instruments 0 0 0 0
played some role (Table 5). In 50% of the scenes and 60%
of the comic book frames, computers appeared in associ-
Total number analyzed 31 106 25 128
ation with scientists. Glassware appeared in only 6% of
the scenes and 15% of the comics.
These data show that the images associated with science The sex distribution in science careers An important
to which children are exposed in schoolbooks and in the feature of the images depicted by children and in the
media are different from those that appear in their media is the frequency with which men are cast in the role
drawings. of the scientist. In Tables 7 and 8 it can be seen that the
images of scientists collected from students and media are
Scientists' drawings To obtain a sampling of the image strongly biased towards the male sex (frequencies of 65%
that scientists have of themselves, we examined drawings to 94%). This rate is consistent with the data published by
solicited from 23 well-established scientists. This sample the US National Science Foundation (Table 9). In 1976,
was collected among scientists of the biomedical area who among 959 500 scientists, men were in the majority (72%
work with glassware. However, only 13% drew glassware to 87%) in three broad areas. We expected that ten years
(Table 6 and Fig. 3). A high percentage (65%) drew the of social change, including a part of the 1970s that saw the
scientist without any instruments, frequently expressing activities of the feminist movement, would be reflected in
the theme in a symbolic and subjective way. This may be a substantial increase in the proportion of women in
an adult trait, as opposed to the more descriptive and American science. The data from 1986, however, show
literal way typical of children. Nature themes also only a very small increase in the percentage of women
appeared more frequently in the drawings by scientists scientists, with men still predominating (63%-78%). This
than in those by children. shows that in the USA the ratio of men to women in
Judging from this sample, the image that scientists have children's drawings actually reflects the situation in the
of themselves is different from that of schoolchildren, professional market.
especially concerning glassware, nature and symbolic To our surprise, the situation in Brazil seems to be
drawings. Many French students, like the adult scientists mttch more favorable to women, although a smaller
(Table 6), drew scientists without instruments (Tables 1
and 2). Table 6 Frequency of elements appearing in scientists'
drawings of scientists"
Table 4 Frequency of elements appearing in Science
textbook illustrations Image Frequency of appearance (%)
Frequences of appearance (%) Glassware 13.0
6th grade 7th grade 8th grade 9th grade Microscope 8.7
hnage books books books books Total
Computer 0
Glassware 15.0 3.0 7.5 31.0 12.9 Formulas 8.7
Microscope 0.5 1.0 1. I 0 (I.7 Space 8.7
Computer 0 I) 0 0 l)
Other instruments 9.8 O. 1 0.4 19.9 6.9 Nature 17.4
Space 5.2 (I 0 2.7 1.9 Ideas 0
Nature 54.8 90.5 5(I.6 12.3 57.1 Question 4.4
H u m a n beings 7.7 4.1 38.3 13.2 13.4
Scientist 2.0 0.8 0.8 3.3 1.6 Other instruments 13.0
Others 5.3 0.4 1.3 17.7 5.5 Without instruments 65.2
Number ofimages 621 869 478 547 2515
Number of drawings 23
Four series of textbooks were chosen at random, each consisting of
four books designed to be used sequentially from the 6th to the 9th "Sample includes only established Brazilian scientists having a
grades in Brazilian schools p e r m a n e n t position at the university and several publications

BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 21(2) 1993

 79

Table 7 Frequency of appearance of male and female Table 10 Percentage of male and female scientists in
scientists in children's drawings different fields in a Brazilian university ~

6th -graders I I th -graders Field of Study

Brazil France USA Nigeria" Brazil France USA Nigeria Natural and Social
Life Sciences Exact Sciences Sciences All Sciences
F 12 14 20 1 10 14 II I1
M 67 82 71 94 76 82 80 65 (~) (2) (~) (~) O) (2) (~) (2)
Not
defined 21 4 9 5 14 4 9 23 (n) 963 1718 984 832 1252 2336 3199 4886
% males 60 50 78 49 46 45 60 47
"This sample was collected in a naval school and there were only boys % females 40 50 22 51 54 55 40 53
in the classes
(n) number of individuals: ~'Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Source: Nticleo de Computaq~o Eletr6nica (1991), Centro de Ci~ncias
Table 8 Frequency of male and female da Satide, UFRJ. (1) Faculty, (2) Graduate Students
scientists in movies and comics

Sex Movies Comics Table 11 The scientist drawn by male and females

Sex of the scientist drawn (%)

F 17 14
Category F M not defined
M 83 86
Not defined 0 0 6th grade students
F (n = 126) 24.6 54.8 20.7
M (n = 111) 0 69.4 30.6
sample was available. In the Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro, 40% of teaching staff in the life sciences are
l l t h grade students
women. In the social sciences, women are in majority
F (n = 75) 17.3 65.3 17.4
(54%). Although we were unable to obtain data from an
M (n = 72) 0 84.7 15.3
earlier decade, it is possible to compare the present
teaching staff with the population of graduate students,
Scientists plus graduate students
from whom new faculty members will be recruited over
F (n = 18) 22.2 22.2 55.6
the next few years. The results in Table 10 show an
M (n = 31) 3.2 35.5 61.3
increase in the percentage of women among the graduate
students, and suggest that in the next generation of
scientists in Brazil the differences in numbers of men and bias towards male prevalent in their parents' generation
women in science will probably have disappeared in all (see Table 11).
areas, including those in which the male presence is
currently very high (ie exact and natural sciences). Young Fields of knowledge in science The answer "chemistry",
high school students, however, do not seem to have given by Brazilian students as the chief field that leads to a
absorbed this trend, and at the time when they are about career in science, does not correspond to either the
to choose a career they are still dominated by the gender American or the Brazilian labor market (see Tables 12
and 13, data from NSF and CNPq). In the NSF data, it
Table 9 Percentage of male and female scientists in different was not possible to separate chemistry from the rest of the
fields in the USA ~ physical sciences. But even considering all who work in
the physical sciences, the percentage in this group is much
Field of Study lower than in the students' answers. Adding the physical
Natural and All scientists to those in other fields that deal with glassware
Life Sciences Exact Sciences ~' Social Sciences" Sciences
(life sciences), the frequency is still very low and does not
1976 correspond to the glassware percentage in the drawings.
(n) 213.5 411.3 334.8 959.5 The number of scientists in the United States is about a
%males 84 87 72 81
% females 16 13 28 19 thousand times greater than in Brazil and in Brazil there
are no scientists in industry; the Brazilian data include
1986 scientists who work in universities and research institutes
(n) 411.8 1093.3 681.3 2186.3
%males 75 77 63 73 only.
% females 25 23 37 27 Science in Brazil began during the nineteenth century,
chiefly in medical schools. At the beginning of the
(n) number of scientists in thousands, in all sectors of employment,
including industry, educational institutions and governmental insti- twentieth century, there were already some medical
tutions. A subsample, including only scientists in educational institutions institutes, whose activities were linked to microbiology
shows essentially the same frequencies (not shown). and epidemiology as well as to production of vaccines and
"Data from US National Science Foundation. hlncludes physical and
mathematical scientists, computer specialists and environmental scien- sera. Chemistry was taught in a professional and applied
tists. ~lncludes social scientists and psychologists context, not having original research as a goal 9.

BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 21(2) 1993

80

Table 12 Distribution of employed scientists and engineers Discussion

by field in the USA a The data presented suggest the existence of a supra-
cultural factor that creates in children the image of the
1976 1986 scientist as a man who works in the laboratory and uses
Total, all fields 2 331 200 4 626 500 glassware. The latter two characteristics of the stereotype
Scientists 959 500 2 186 300 are consistent with the answers given to the question of
what fields lead to scientific careers (Table 3), ie chem-
Phys Scientists 19.7% 13.2%
istry. This bias appears early: ten-year-old children, who
Math Scientists 5.1% 6.0%
have not yet studied science systematically, already have
Comp Specialists 12.4% 25.7%
this image.
Environ Scientists 5.7% 5.1%
Dietrichkeit s studied the drawings of Brazilian children
Life Scientists 22.3% 18.8%
in the elementary school (grades l to 4) and observed a
Psychologists 11.7% 11.6%
high incidence of both chemists and inventors. The
Social Scientists 23.1% 19.6%
approach used by the author was different from that used
in this work but suggests that the chemist stereotype may
Engineers 1 371 700 2 440 100
already be found among 6-8-year-old children. The factor
Aeron/astron 4.1% 4.5% responsible for this bias may be supracultural because it
Chemical 5.7% 6.1% does not change substantially in school, is not influenced
Civil 13.7% 14.2% by media, and appears in countries with different edu-
Eiectr/electron 20.6% 23.5% cational systems and variable degrees of scientific and
Industrial * 5.6% technological development.
Materials * 2.2% The fact that the image of the scientist found in
Mechanical 20.1% 20.2% textbooks and the stereotype shown by the media were
Other Engineers 35.8% 23.7% different from the image that prevailed among children,
added to the fact that this image is already established in
~Data from NSF; * Not detailed. Included in 'other engineers' the youngest children of this survey, suggested the
possibility of oral transmission.
Even scientists, who actually work with glassware used
Table 13 Distribution of scientists in Brazil in 1989~
this element with less frequency in their own drawings,
Scientists Graduate Students suggesting the possibility that in-depth information about
Total all fields 5764 8290 the scientific career and the practice of science, as well as
experience in this career, tend to dilute the stereotype.
Exact, phys andenviron 20.5% 19.6% Since the drawings of Brazilian schoolchildren do not
Chemistry b 4.9% 6.6% reflect the current reality in Brazilian science, it appears
Engineer/comput 8.2% 17.8% that the stereotype can persist even when it is not
Subtotal 1643 3104 consistent with the facts. Possibly it is a hangover from a
Agricult Sci 24.4% 12.0% concept that predominated in Europe in the 18th and 19th
Bio Sci 21.3% 11.3% centuries, identifying the scientist as a chemist not far
Health Sci 8.4% 6.4% removed from the old alchemist. Whatever its source, this
Subtotal (Life Sci) 3118 2458 image appears to be so strong that many young people are
Social Sci 17.2% 32.9% unaware of other fields that can lead to careers in science
Subtotal 993 2728 - - for example, geography and geology. Even math-
ematics and physics were cited in much lower frequencies
~Data from National Research Council (CNPq). Number of research than chemistry.
fellowships, blncluded in Exact, Physical and Environmental Sciences. Regardless of the origin of the stereotype, one import-
¢ Includes Psychology, arts and humanities
ant consequence is that students are badly informed about
scientific careers and the practice of science. This may
have a negative effect on the choice of science as a
profession. The similarity in data collected from children
in the USA with that from developing countries suggests
The numbers in Table 13 reflect this environment. In that the stereotype may be a factor in both worlds in the
1989, scientists in the biological plus medical sciences failure to attract young people to science.
predominate. Judging from the data for graduate
students, however, there is a trend towards a distribution Acknowledgements
similar to that found in the USA. Nevertheless, there is a This work was supported in part by grants from F u n d a ~ o de Amparo ~
sharp difference between the percentage of scientists Pesquisa do Rio de Janeiro, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos and by
Programa de Apoio ao desenvolvimento Cientffico e Tecnol6gico-
working in chemistry shown in Table 13 and the citation of CAPES/MEC-Forma~fio de Recursos Humanos em Educa~fio para a
chemistry in the students' answers. Ci6ncia.

BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 21(2) 1993


References
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3Anderson, A (1989) Nature 342. 355-374.
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-~de Meis, L, Machado, R C P and Rumjanek, V B D (1991) Cidncia e
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6Atkinson, R C (1990) Science 248, 425-432
7Pool, R (1990) Science 248,433-435
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USP
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- - Companhia Editora Nacional
Elaboration of the Concept of Partition of Amphi-
pathic Substrates in Bilayer Membranes in Courses
on Enzymology
KAREL P M HEIRWEGH* and ZAHUR ZAMAN**
* Laboratory of Hepatology and
** Laboratory of Clinical Chemistry
Faculty of Medicine
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Gasthuisbereg, 3000-Leuven, Belgium
Introduction
In undergraduate courses on enzymology and general
biochemistry, students are often given the misleading
notion that enzymic reactions occur solely in homo-
geneous aqueous media. This approach ignores partition-
ing of substrates and enzymes into bilayer membranes and
generally also the effects of substrate hydrophobicity on
binding to acceptor proteins. Thus it cannot account for
modulatory effects on metabolism ensuing from variable
hydrophohicity of large numbers of natural and xenobiotic
substrates. In the present paper it is suggested that, even
at an early stage of biochemical education, the treatment
of reactions occurring in homogeneous media may easily
be extended to membrane-containing suspensions without
placing extra demands on the mathematical skills of the
students. Central to the discussion is the concept of water/
membrane partition of solutes. Single-substrate/single-
product enzymic conversion of a non-ionizing substrate
occurring in a reaction mixture containing bilayer mem-
brane material will be considered as an example.~-4 The
approach is easily extended to more complex reaction
mixtures containing several vesicle preparations, 5-7 a
soluble substrate-binding protein 7 or an ionizable sub-
strate, s On the basis of quite reasonable assumptions,
response formulae are derived that have exactly the same
structure as those applied to corresponding homogeneous
systems. The apparent Michaelis constants Kmapp in the
formulae contain all the information, typical for the
multiphasic character of the reaction mixtures, in a form
permitting easy interpretation of the reaction rates in
terms of substrate hydrophobicity. Moreover, a consider-
able amount of information is obtained about the nature
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION 21(2) 1993
81
and orientation of the catalytic sites, the treatment being
particularly relevant for interpreting structure-activity
relationships of drugs.
Enzymic model
In aqueous media containing membrane material, it is
possible to conceive of a number of reaction mechanisms
interrelating amphipathic reactants, soluble or mem-
brane-associated enzymes and membrane lipid, eg
enzymic action on lipid monolayers, 9 micelles "~ or mono-
meric substrate. Only the latter type of substrate will be
discussed. Consider single-substrate (S)/single-product
(O) reaction occurring in the presence of bilayer mem-
brane material
S i + E~_~1 (SE)~ _~_2(QE)~ _._3Q~+ E i (1)
where the superscript i indicates the environment of the
enzymic sites. For a soluble enzyme, the environment is
aqueous (i = aq); for a membrane-associated enzyme, it
is aqueous (i = aq) or lipidic (i = m). ~,2 In the absence of
product the initial rate v
V = Vmax S//(Kra -{- S i) (2)
where Si is the substrate concentration in compartment i.
If one could measure the local concentration Si and know
whether the catalytic sites are located in an aqueous or
lipid compartment, eqn 2 would be all that is needed for
analysing the experimental results whatever additional
reactions might be occurring in the reaction mixtures.
Since the reaction rate v is generally known only as a
function of the total substrate concentration St, substrate
partition has to be taken into account explicitly.
Water/membrane partition of substrates
The procedure will be illustrated for enzymic sites that are
either located in the membrane lipid or are in contact with
the aqueous medium surrounding the vesicles. Assuming
that the various aqueous and lipidic compartments can be
treated as homogeneous solutions, TM solute distribution
between the aqueous compartment (aq) surrounding the
vesicles and the membrane-lipid compartment (m) is
described by
saq -'-4 Sm pm __ Sm
S~,. (3)
where Saq and Sm are the local concentrations in the
aqueous and lipidic compartments, respectively, and pm is
a water/membrane partition coefficient. A similar re-
lationship applies to the vesicular lumenal aqueous com-
partment with a partition coefficient possibly different
from pro. The assumed homogeneity of the aqueous and
lipid compartments implies that the partition and kinetic
coefficients derived from any model that is based on eqn 3
are average values. 5
To obtain a workable form of eqn 2, the local substrate