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Related Concept Videos

Diffusion01:12

Diffusion

Diffusion is the passive movement of substances down their concentration gradients—requiring no expenditure of cellular energy. Substances, such as molecules or ions, diffuse from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration in the cytosol or across membranes. Eventually, the concentration will even out, with the substance moving randomly but causing no net change in concentration. Such a state is called dynamic equilibrium, which is essential for maintaining overall...
Diffusion01:21

Diffusion

Diffusion is a type of passive transport. In passive transport, a substance tends to move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration until the concentration is equal across the space. For example, take the diffusion of substances through the air. When someone opens a perfume bottle in a room filled with people, the perfume is at its highest concentration in the bottle and is at its lowest at the edges of the room. The perfume vapor will diffuse, or spread away, from the...
Diffusion on Chromatography Columns01:07

Diffusion on Chromatography Columns

In column chromatography, when an analyte is introduced as a narrow band at the top of the column, the solutes begin to separate and broaden, developing a Gaussian profile. This broadening occurs due to various factors, such as longitudinal diffusion.
Longitudinal diffusion occurs when the solute molecules in the mobile phase diffuse from the more concentrated center of the chromatographic band to the more dilute regions on either side, both towards and against the flow direction. This...
Carrier Transport01:21

Carrier Transport

The generation of electrical current in semiconductors is fundamentally driven by two mechanisms: drift and diffusion. These processes are essential for the functionality and performance of semiconductor-based devices.
Drift Current:
The drift of charge carriers is started by an external electric field (E). Charged particles, such as electrons and holes, experience an acceleration between collisions with lattice atoms. For electrons, this results in a drift velocity (vd) given by:
Protein Diffusion in the Membrane01:24

Protein Diffusion in the Membrane

Proteins show rotational as well as lateral diffusion across the membrane. The lateral diffusion of proteins was confirmed through the cell fusion experiment where mouse and human cells were fused, resulting in hybrid cells. When the human and mouse cells fused, the specific membrane proteins on human and mouse cells were marked with the red and green-fluorescent markers, respectively. Initially, the red and green fluorescence was located on the respective hemisphere of the cell. As time...
Behavior of Gas Molecules: Molecular Diffusion, Mean Free Path, and Effusion03:48

Behavior of Gas Molecules: Molecular Diffusion, Mean Free Path, and Effusion

Although gaseous molecules travel at tremendous speeds (hundreds of meters per second), they collide with other gaseous molecules and travel in many different directions before reaching the desired target. At room temperature, a gaseous molecule will experience billions of collisions per second. The mean free path is the average distance a molecule travels between collisions. The mean free path increases with decreasing pressure; in general, the mean free path for a gaseous molecule will be...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
06:55

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level

Published on: September 26, 2016

Propagators and time-dependent diffusion coefficients for anomalous diffusion.

Jianrong Wu1, Keith M Berland

  • 1Physics Department, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.

Biophysical Journal
|May 20, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Investigating anomalous diffusion in complex environments requires clear definitions of time-dependent diffusion coefficients. This study clarifies their physical meaning and relation to fitting parameters in fluorescence correlation spectroscopy for accurate data interpretation.

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Area of Science:

  • Biophysics
  • Physical Chemistry
  • Cell Biology

Background:

  • Anomalous diffusion is common in biological systems but its causes are not fully understood.
  • Existing theoretical models for anomalous diffusion lack consistency and clarity.
  • Inconsistent reporting of fitting parameters hinders data interpretation and comparison.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To clarify the physical meaning of time-dependent diffusion coefficients in anomalous diffusion models.
  • To facilitate accurate interpretation of experimental mobility data.
  • To improve the comparison of results across different studies.

Main Methods:

  • Discussing a propagator for anomalous diffusion that models mean-square displacement.
  • Demonstrating rigorous satisfaction of the extended diffusion equation.
  • Clarifying the relationship between time-dependent diffusion coefficients and fitting parameters.

Main Results:

  • A consistent definition of time-dependent diffusion coefficients is provided.
  • The propagator accurately captures power-law dependence in mean-square displacement.
  • Explicit relations between diffusion coefficients and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy fitting parameters are clarified.

Conclusions:

  • Clear definitions of time-dependent diffusion coefficients are essential for understanding anomalous diffusion.
  • This work provides a framework for consistent analysis of mobility data in complex environments.
  • Accurate interpretation and comparison of experimental results are now more feasible.