BRAINCAKEOsmosis
Osmosis is the passage of water from a region where it has a higher water potential to a region where it has a lower water potential through a selectively permeable membrane.
The cell membrane is permeable to water molecules. Although water is a polar molecule, it is small enough to pass through the phospholipid bilayer.
Water moves across the phospholipid bilayer in both directions.
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Key terms in this lesson
- phospholipid bilayer
- Two layers of phospholipid molecules arranged with hydrophilic heads facing outwards and hydrophobic tails facing inwards, forming the basic structure of cell membranes.
- selectively permeable
- Describes a membrane that allows some substances to cross it but not others.
More in Plasma Membrane
- Solvents
- Diffusion
- Diffusion Across Membranes
- Facilitated Diffusion
- Active Transport
- Bulk Transport
- Osmosis in Animal Cells
- Osmosis in Plant Cells
All 18 lessons in Plasma Membrane · All OCR AS-level Biology topics