Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

MarieSager's picture

Our hypothesis is that the

Our hypothesis is that the salt will explode the cells.

Observations: With the 1% NaCl the cells appeared slightly shrink. After reviewing this further, what ACTUALLY happened was the cell membrane moved away from the cell wall. This may have happened because the inside and outside of the cell were in equilibrium, and the addition of NaCl to the cells screwed up the equilibrium. In order to compensate, the cells expelled water and the cell membrane shrunk.

Further questions: What are the chemical make up of cells? And also, would
this be true of all cells? In answering this, one could use animal cells, human cells, and other plant cells.

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
9 + 4 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.