Osmosis – BioQuakes

Water is a necessity for all living things. Water is fundamental component of cells and is essential for various biological processes. Water serves as a medium for the transport of nutrients in both plants and animals. In plants, water is crucial for the uptake of minerals from the soil and their movement within the plant. For humans, access to clean and safe drinking water is crucial for survival and good health. Lack of clean water can lead to waterborne diseases and other health issues.

According to a study conducted at the University of Bath, Swansea, and Edinburgh students found a breakthrough method to supply drinking water to disaster zones with limited electrical power. Unlike your typical way of reverse osmosis where a high pressure pump is used to increase the pressure on the salt from the seawater so that the salt can be extracted from the water. The water is then forced to cross semi-permeable RO membrane. The primary purpose of an RO membrane is to selectively allow the passage of water molecules while preventing the passage of contaminants. In the students’ approach they use a small amount of electrical power to draw the ions to go though the membrane which also bring the water molecules with them. This also reduces the risk for membrane clogging but also less electrical power. The Professor Frank Marken also stated that with this breakthrough they could also be able to use it in the medical field by such as applications for dosing systems like insulin. This refers to the adaptability of the technology for medical use. The process, which utilizes a small amount of electrical energy to move ions through a membrane, could be miniaturized and applied to create precise dosing systems. The method allows for precise control over the movement of ions through the membrane. In a medical context, this could translate to a highly controlled and precise dosing mechanism. For medications like insulin, where accuracy is crucial to manage blood sugar levels effectively, such precision is highly desirable

In AP Biology, We tried to use the principles of osmosis to determine different concentrations of various unlabeled solutions. In osmosis, water moves through the membrane to equalize the concentration of solute on both sides. The driving force behind osmosis is the difference in concentration, commonly referred to as the concentration gradient. The side with lower solute concentration is often called hypotonic, while the side with higher solute concentration is hypertonic. There are three main types of solutions based on their osmotic pressure and their effects on cells, isotonic solution, hypertonic solution, and hypotonic solution. The direction of water movement in osmosis is influenced by the relative concentrations of solutes on either side of the membrane. Water moves from areas of lower solute concentration (hypotonic) to areas of higher solute concentration (hypertonic) until equilibrium is reached. With the principles of osmosis we then would calculate each different solution to find the water potential. This scientific breakthrough of being able to make seawater into drinkable water with less electrical power is breathtaking. Not only does this new technique use a small amount of electrical energy. This makes the process more energy-efficient and reduces energy waste. This method could be applied on a smaller scale, making it suitable for areas where there is a need for drinking water but limited infrastructure for example, deserts and other remote areas which can help people who can not obtain fresh drinkable water a bigger chance to obtain water. Can you think of any other places that can benefit from this experiment?

Sea Turtles Survival in The Salty Seas

By lagoon1

On October 23, 2023

In Student Post

Water makes up 71% of our planet while only around 3.5% of the total water on. Earth is fresh. While there is plenty of water around, many animals can’t even drink it. For humans, consuming salt water disrupts cellular processes. Cells try to balance osmotic pressure, and end up losing more water, leading to dehydration. Our kidneys also work to filter out the excess salts, but the high rapid intake of seawater overwhelms our body’s ability to eliminate it. However, marine animals, like the sea turtle, have evolved to live in salty environments. Although sea turtles can process and get rid of the salt from their bodies, they are not too different from humans when it comes to the intake of salt water. You may think how is a sea turtle similar to us? Well Sea turtles have less salt inside their bodies than the ocean around them, and their kidneys can’t make saltier urine than their blood. In order to survive they need less salt in their bodies than their surroundings. The turtles are able to keep the salt from going through its skin because their skin is so tough. Some marine animals are able to regulate their water intake through the food they eat, like in the case of whales, but this does not work for the sea turtle. The main food source for many sea turtles are jellyfish. If you think about the jellyfish, they really dont have much to them. If you had to guess that sea turtles have to eat a lot of jellyfish to get the energy they need you would be right. Jellyfish are 96% water, and 4% salt, which makes them salty just like the ocean. Less than 1% of the jellyfish is used for food. This causes the sea turtle to take in a lot of salt along with its meal. Imagine having more salt than food on your plate! How would you handle the intake of all that salt?

Sea turtles use salt glands to shed out the salt they intake. The salt glands take up a large part of the head region, primarily around its eyes. The glands transport the salt from the turtle’s bloodstream and concentrate it into a salty solution, which is then excreted through the turtle’s tear ducts. Specifically the leatherback sea turtle cries around 8 liters (2 gallons) of tears every hour. Yes, it sounds sad, but sea turtles cry out salt everyday. This process is very important in maintaining sea turtles internal salt balance and allows them to survive in salty environments.

In our AP Biology class, we learned about osmosis which is, the movement of water across a permeable membrane to equalize solute concentrations. The process of a turtle’s regulation of its bodys salt concentration is related to the topic of osmosis. In the case of sea turtles, their bodies must manage the osmotic challenge of living in a salty ocean environment. The process of the turtle using its salt glands involves the movement of water. This process involves moving water to dilute the excess salt, and is a form of osmosis that helps the turtles maintain their internal salt balance despite the high-salt surroundings. As we learned, animals can not have salt water surrounding their cells because it will cause the cells to become severely hypertonic, meaning the cell will completely shrivel up since the water went from a high concentration of water inside the cell to the low concentration of water surrounding it.

Process of osmosis: water going from high to low concentration

Osmosis Jones: Fact vs. Fiction

By henroids

On March 10, 2013

In Student Post

The Cells of the Immune System
Photo from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Innate_Immune_cells.jpg

Osmosis Jones is the story of a white blood cell police officer, Ozzy, who teams up with a cold pill, Drix, to save Frank from a deadly virus. Of course being a children’s movie Osmosis Jones isn’t a completely accurate depiction of the human immune system, or body in general, but just how accurate is it?

In the movie the major conflict arises when Frank, the human, eats an unsanitary egg. On this egg lives the virus, Thrax, who is a deadly pathogen. So far the movie checks out. In the human immune system the first line of defense are barriers between the inside of the body and the outside world. Some of these barriers include the skin, mucus membranes, tears, saliva, sweat and stomach acid. In the movie the virus does penetrate one of these barriers, in this case the mouth, to enter the body. This is accurate to how a virus may enter the human body.

After this the movie becomes less and less accurate to how the human immune system functions. Although there is detection of a pathogen the only response Frank’s immune system has in the movie is through the use of the police force, the white blood cells. This is completely inaccurate to how the human body fights off a pathogen. When the body detects a pathogen (virus or bacteria) mast cells release histamines to dilate the blood vessels (this is never shown in the movie, especially because the blood vessels are shown as highways, but thats another matter altogether). The next step in the immune response is macrophages come and engulf infected and dead cells and they release cytokines that attract other immune cells to the area. Neutrophils and natural killer cells then kill the infected cells. The closest thing to this second line of defense is the police force and their communication. They have radios and ways to communicate to call for backup, although it is extremely inaccurate to the way the immune system really functions.

The third line of defense that the Human body uses is specific defense. This includes B and T cells and the steps taken to target the pathogen specifically and the infected cells. Through the processes of Cell-mediated response and Antibody-mediated response the immune system targets the infection and destroys it. Both of these processes are not depicted in the movie in any form. This along with the ending (don’t worry I won’t spoil it) are both inaccurate to anything that could happen in the human body.

So Osmosis Jones isn’t the most scientifically accurate movie of all time, but that doesn’t stop it from making a great movie. The inaccuracies in the film can be excused by the fact that it is a children’s movie and not a new theory about the immune system. I mean how many kids would want to sit though a movie that was 100% accurate? You would lose all of the car chases, the drama, the suspense, the mucus filled dams, and the explosions. Overall I really enjoy Osmosis Jones, although I don’t recommend using it to study for your next science test.

BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Tag: Osmosis

A Sustainable Breakthrough To Rescue Drinking Water

Sea Turtles Survival in The Salty Seas

Osmosis Jones: Fact vs. Fiction

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