The Distribution of Glucose Inside and Outside an Artificial Membrane

Abstract

The surface area of a cell affects the rate of diffusion.  We came about this observation while attempting to answer the question, what causes different rates of diffusion in semi-permeable membranes? (French, 2014).  Many of the other scientists in our lab group who were given the same background information chose to focus on molecule size or cell temperature. We chose to focus on the vell size because we felt it was equally important as the other variables. To answer the research question we designed an experiment that tested the rate of diffusion while all other variables were controlled.  To test this we measured the rate of diffusion between three differently sized dialysis tubes, these tubes represented a cell membrane. This research was done to determine the correlation between the rate of diffusion and the surface area of a cell.