Osmosis Lab Report

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Dennis Baca Osmosis Lab: Conclusion Biology: 1 Period: 5 11/13/15 In conclusion, I learned that the cell membrane is able to select what can come into the cell, and just how selective it is. I also learned more about how diffusion and osmosis is able to work in conjunction with passive transport. In conducting this lab I used dialysis tubing, as mentioned in the introduction it is a synthetic membrane and acts as a cell membrane, one example is filtering wastes from a person’s blood with a kidney problem. In Part: A Table: 1 the iodine initially present in the just the beaker water/iodine was able to diffuse into the tubing, yet the starch didn’t diffuse out. I was able to discern that only one crossed through because I only observed a color…show more content…
This is due to the fact that the starch molecules are simply too big to fit through the holes in the tubing and get stuck whereas the iodine molecules are small enough to easily travel between the two. In Part: B of the experiment I noticed that the glucose in the tube went into the beaker water and the beaker water was in the tubing. This means that both the water and the glucose were able to diffuse across the membrane which was indicated by a bright orange color. The reason the glucose was able to make it across was because even though it is still a carbohydrate just like the starch solution, it is a monosaccharide which is much smaller than a polysaccharide so it was able to fit though the tiny holes. One other way I was able to tell water was getting into the membrane was by weight in ten minute intervals were I observed an increase in weight for the dialysis tubing. In the end my hypothesis: If the cell membranes holes are small and selective, then the thicker solutions/molecules: starches will not make it through but the smaller ones: glucose will, was supported in my testing. This experiment is important to society because it will help scientists to learn more about how the membrane allows substances in and out of the cell, which would help

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