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What is Homeostasis?

Homeostasis (stasis meaning constant state) is "the ability of an organism to maintain a constant internal environment despite the external environment" (Momchilov.com). In other words, homeostasis keeps the conditions and environment under control so that the cell can live and function. Without these special conditions, the cell would not function properly and it could possibly die. Some of the ways that the cell achieves the conditions for homeostasis is through osmosis, diffusion, and active transport. These three transport processes are the three main ways that a cell gets the nutrients it needs to survive and also dispose of waste. We will now analyze the main differences between these processes.

Osmosis

  • This process allows water to move freely in and out of the cell depending on how much water is in the cell. 

  • The water will "flow in the direction of greater to lesser concentration" (Momchilov.com).

  • This process is different from the others because it mainly focuses on transporting water

Diffusion

  • The transport process of diffusion is very similar to osmosis with the process dealing with transporting liquids.

  • However, the main difference of the diffusion process is that it transports all liquids other than water, into the cell, unlike the osmosis process

Active Transport

  • The active transport process is the process that uses the energy of the cell to move something in or out of the cell.

  • This process is different because it doesn't deal with liquids, instead it deals with the energy required to transport those liquids

We can see processes similar to those of osmosis, diffusion, and active transport in sewage plants all over the country. The people operating the plant transport the sewage, containing many liquids, into a large pool. There the plant operators can choose what liquids they want to be removed from the pool of water and what liquids they want to keep in order to help the liquids turn back into water. This is a bit like diffusion with the plant operators controlling the substances that they want in their pool of liquids. Once they sort the liquids apart, they start with the cleansing process of the liquid by removing all solids in the liquids through various chemicals and collection basins. Once the liquids have turned into water, the plant operators direct the water based on where there is need for it. This is a bit like osmosis with the plant operators controlling where the water goes based on the level of concentration. Finally, in order to power this plant, generators provide the required energy to run all the pumps and processes in the plant. This can be compared to the active transport process since it doesn't have to deal with the liquids, but instead the process focuses on using energy to move the liquid around and filter it.

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