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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...
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...
The de Broglie Wavelength02:32

The de Broglie Wavelength

In the macroscopic world, objects that are large enough to be seen by the naked eye follow the rules of classical physics. A billiard ball moving on a table will behave like a particle; it will continue traveling in a straight line unless it collides with another ball, or it is acted on by some other force, such as friction. The ball has a well-defined position and velocity or well-defined momentum, p = mv, which is defined by mass m and velocity v at any given moment. This is the typical...
Fast Reactions01:27

Fast Reactions

Fast reactions occurring in times shorter than the time needed to mix reactants pose a unique challenge for investigation. In a liquid-phase continuous-flow system, reactants A and B are swiftly pushed into the mixing chamber, where mixing occurs within 1 ms. The reaction mixture then flows through an observation tube, and one measures light absorption to determine species concentrations at various points of the tube. This method is most appropriate when relatively large volumes of reactants...
Passive Diffusion: Overview and Kinetics01:17

Passive Diffusion: Overview and Kinetics

Passive diffusion is a critical process that allows small lipophilic drugs to cross the cell membrane along a concentration gradient. This mechanism's efficiency depends on four primary factors: the membrane's surface area, the drug's lipid-water partition coefficient, the concentration gradient, and the membrane's thickness.
When administered orally, drugs establish a substantial concentration gradient between the gastrointestinal (GI) lumen and the bloodstream, expediting their diffusion into...

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Generating Controlled, Dynamic Chemical Landscapes to Study Microbial Behavior
10:07

Generating Controlled, Dynamic Chemical Landscapes to Study Microbial Behavior

Published on: January 31, 2020

Reaction-diffusion waves in biology.

V Volpert1, S Petrovskii

  • 1Institut Camille Jordan, UMR 5208 CNRS, University Lyon 1, 69622 Villeurbanne, France.

Physics of Life Reviews
|April 27, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Reaction-diffusion waves, originating in the 1930s, are a dynamic research area. This review focuses on their diverse and significant applications within biology.

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Area of Science:

  • Mathematical Biology
  • Nonlinear Dynamics
  • Theoretical Chemistry

Background:

  • Reaction-diffusion theory emerged in the 1930s, with early work in population dynamics, combustion, and chemical kinetics.
  • It has evolved into a sophisticated field studying traveling waves in scalar and systems of equations, encompassing complex nonlinear dynamics.
  • The theory finds broad applications across physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To provide a comprehensive review of the biological applications of reaction-diffusion waves.
  • To highlight the significance of reaction-diffusion models in understanding biological phenomena.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of existing research on reaction-diffusion waves.
  • Synthesis of findings from various biological disciplines utilizing these wave phenomena.

Main Results:

  • Reaction-diffusion waves are integral to modeling pattern formation and dynamic processes in biological systems.
  • Examples include morphogenesis, epidemic spread, and neural signal propagation.
  • The review consolidates diverse biological case studies.

Conclusions:

  • Reaction-diffusion waves offer a powerful mathematical framework for analyzing complex biological systems.
  • Their continued study promises deeper insights into life processes.
  • This review underscores the interdisciplinary impact of reaction-diffusion theory in biology.