“Every cell is a triumph of natural selection, and we’re made of trillions of

cells. Within us, is a little universe.” - Carl Sagan

Movement In and Out of

Cells
By: Hridansh Hirpara
 Diffusion

Everything - including living cells - is made of atoms, molecules and

ions. These particles are always moving. The higher the temperature,
the faster they move. This is because the particles have more kinetic
energy at higher terperatures.
 Diffusion down a Concentration Gradient
When they can move freely, particles tend to spread themselves out as evenly as
they can. This happens with gases, solutions, and mixtures of liquids

One way of thinking about this is to imagine a rotten egg is at the top of the slope. The place with
the low concentration (the molecules move ‘down’ the slope from where there is a high
concentration to where there is a low concentration. Another word for ‘slope’ is ‘gradient’. We can
therefore say that there is a concentration gradient from the rotten egg to the rest of the room. The
overall result of this is that the hydrogen sulfide molecules move ‘down’ the concentration
gradient.
 Diffusion in Living Organisms
Living organisms get many of the substances they need by diffusion. This way,
for example, plants need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis.

Diffusion is also important in gas exchange for respiration in

animals and plants (Figure 3.4). Carbon dioxide and oxygen are
freely permeable to oxygen and cell membranes, so they easily
diffuse in and out of cells.
 Osmosis

Every cell in an organism’s body has water inside it and outside it. Many different substances are
dissolved in this water, and their concentrations may be different inside and outside the cell. This
creates concentration gradients, down which water and solutes will diffuse, if they are able to pass
through the membrane.
 Osmosis Example
It’s easiest to think about this if we consider a simple situation involving just one solute, Figure 3.5 illustrates a
concentrated sugar solution separated from a dilute sugar solution by a membrane. The membrane has holes or pores
in it which are very small. Water molecules are also very small. Each one is made of two hydrogen atoms and one
oxygen atom. Sugar molecules are many times larger than this.

There is a higher concentration of sugar molecules on the right-hand side of the membrane
in Figure 3.5, and a lower concentration on the left-hand side. If the membrane was not
there, the sugar molecules would diffuse until they were evenly spread out. However, they
cannot do this because the holes in the membrane are too small for them to get through.

There is also a concentration gradient for the water molecules. On the left-hand side of the membrane, there is a high
concentration of water molecules. On the right-hand side, the concentration of water molecules is lower because a lot
of space is taken up by sugar molecules.
Because there are more water molecules on the left-hand side, at any one moment more of them will hit a hole in the membrane
and move through to the other side than will go the other way (right to left). Over time, there will be an overall, or net,
movement of water from left to right. This is called osmosis.
 Osmosis in Real Life
An example of a membrane like this is dialysis tubing.

In dialysis tubing, the holes are big enough to let the water molecules through,
but not the sugar molecules. Dialysis tubing is called a partially permeable
membrane because it will let some molecules through but not others.
This is used to clean blood and remove any impurities.
 Water Potential
A dilute solution has a high water potential as a concentrated solutionhas a low
water potential.
In Figure 3.6, there is a high water potential on the right-hand side. There is
a water potential gradient between the two sides. The water molecules
diffuse down this gradient, from a high water potential to a low water
potential. Water potential and osmosis are of great importance to organisms
because they affect how and when organisms take up and lose water.