Why did the water cross the membrane? To get to the other side of course!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Water works in many amazing ways, including inside our own cells! But how do we study something as invisible as water?
Antoine Vian from the Cluster of Physics of Life at T.U. Dresden and team wanted to know.
To study this, they developed water droplets surrounded by oil. Think of cream puffs! The oil acts as a shield to protect the water. They added droplets with different molecules to water and different types of oil to cells. Then, they created sensors to visualize the changes in the size of the oil droplet.
Results? They saw the droplets DOUBLE in size! Thus, researchers can see water movement inside the cells!
We can use these droplets to study water movement in embryos and different diseases!
Talk about staying hydrated! Our cells are SLOSHED!
Reference: Vian, A., Pochitaloff, M., Yen, S., Kim, S. W., Pollock, J. S., Liu, Y., Sletten, E. M., & Campàs, O. (2023). In situ quantification of osmotic pressure within living embryonic tissues. Nature Communications, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42024-9