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Related Concept Videos

Diffusion01:12

Diffusion

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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...
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Diffusion01:21

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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...
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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.
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Carrier Transport01:21

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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.
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Behavior of Gas Molecules: Molecular Diffusion, Mean Free Path, and Effusion03:48

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

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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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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...
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Related Experiment Video

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The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow
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Single file diffusion into a semi-infinite tube.

Spencer G Farrell1, Aidan I Brown, Andrew D Rutenberg

  • 1Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2, Canada.

Physical Biology
|November 24, 2015
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Summary

Single file diffusion (SFD) affects individual particle motion, not overall density, in semi-infinite tubes. Tracked particles show super-diffusion then diffusion, with displacement ratios varying based on entry order and time.

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Area of Science:

  • Physics
  • Biophysics
  • Statistical Mechanics

Background:

  • Single-file diffusion (SFD) describes particle movement where particles cannot overtake each other.
  • SFD is relevant in biological systems like protein transport in microtubules and flagella.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of SFD on tracer particle motion in a semi-infinite tube.
  • To analyze how SFD affects individual particle displacement and density evolution.

Main Methods:

  • Stochastic simulations were employed to model particle entry into a semi-infinite tube.
  • Exact and approximate ordering statistics were used to analyze particle behavior.
  • Comparison of individually tracked particle motion versus average displacement of untracked particles.

Main Results:

  • SFD significantly impacts individual tracer particle motion but not particle density evolution.
  • Tracked particles exhibit initial super-diffusion followed by asymptotic diffusion.
  • The ratio of individual to average displacement shows time-dependent reduction and enhancement, scaling with particle entry order.

Conclusions:

  • SFD effects are observable in experiments tracking individual particles (e.g., using photo-activation/bleaching).
  • Biological processes dependent on local concentration (e.g., flagellar extension) are unlikely to show SFD effects.