Introduction

Cell membrane transport is the transport of material in and outside of the cell pass through the
phospholipid bilayer (cell membrane). Cell membrane transport are divided into two types;
passive and active transport. Passive transport is the transport that didnt use energy (ATP). In
addition, it is the movement of molecules from high to low concentration gradient. Concentration
gradient is the process of solutes or particles moving from the areas of higher number of solutes
to the lower number of solutes by passing through the selectively permeable membrane (cell
membrane). Selectively permeable membrane is the membrane that allow specific substance to
pass in and out. Passive transport is natural (automatic process). Passive transports are divided
into three types; simple diffusion, facilitated diffusion, and osmosis. First, simple diffusion is the
movement of substance that can directly pass through the phospholipid bilayer. The majority of
phospholipid bilayer is the double layer membrane that make out of hydrophilic (polar) head and
hydrophobic (non-polar) tail. Polar is the molecules that have charge but non-polar is the
molecules that dont have charge. The polar head is heading toward the water because water is
polar but the non-polar tails have been hiding inside the membrane because it doesnt have
charge. So, the simple diffusion allows only small polar and non-polar substance to pass through.
Second, facilitated diffusion is the substance that cant directly pass through the cell membrane.
So, it will use the transport protein (carrier and channel) in the membrane to pass in and outside
of the cell (Brown, 2009) The substance that are large (non-polar and ions) will use this kind of
diffusion. The third one is osmosis. According to Bowen (2010), osmosis is the movement of
water across the selectively permeable membrane from high to low concentration of water until
both side is equilibrium. In addition, water will always move to the side that have higher solute.
The side that have higher solute is called hypertonic side. The side that have lower solute is
called hypotonic side. If solute between two side is equal, it is called isotonic. For instance, if
you soaked your hand in water during bath or wash dishes for a long time. The skin around
fingers will start became wrinkling because the water has less solute than the skin ( USB Science
Line, 2015). So, the water will move inside the skin (the cell). In addition, the water will come
inside the skin until the concentration between water and skin is equal.

In this experiment, jelly and potato were the substance that have been use to demonstrate the
osmosis process. The jelly and potato will be put into the hypertonic and hypotonic solution. In
addition, the distilled water use to represent the hypotonic solution, concentrated salt water use to
represent the hypertonic solution and the empty beaker that contained jelly and potato will
represent the isotonic solution.
References

Brown, R. (2009, August). Simple diffusion and facilitated diffusion. Retrieved from
http://www.austincc.edu/biocr/1406/laba/diffusion/

Bowen, R. (2010, January). Osmosis. Retrieved from

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

USCB Science Line. (2015). Retrieved from http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=3152

Submitted by Phatsakorn Rodphol (field) 1002