Biology Extension Questions

Suppose you made a lettuce salad in the afternoon, added salt and other seasonings, and then put the salad in the refrigerator. When you took the salad out of the refrigerator for dinner, the lettuce looked wilted and some water was in the bottom of the bowl. Use the principles of osmosis to explained what happened?

Salt absorbs the water out of the lettuce

Using the concept of osmosis, explain why water is sprayed over produce in a grocery store.

Spraying produce with water makes the concentration of water outside their cells greater than the concentration inside the cells. Water will diffuse into the cells of the produce by osmosis. This causes the produce to look more full and less wilted.

In extreme cases, it is possible to die from drinking too much water. The consumption of several liters of water in a short amount of time can lead to brain edema (swelling) and death. Explain the effect of ingesting an extremely large amount of water at the level of the brain cells, including the role of osmosis in this process

The concentration of the cells would be 0% water, when water is 100% water. Because nature wants to be equal, by osmosis, the water will go through the cell membrane and into the cell, which could cause it to explode and result in death