- Series:God’s Design, Transcript English
Romans 1:20
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”
It has often seemed to me that many processes in science seem to occur in order to minimize differences or minimize changes. One such process is osmosis.
Osmosis is a process that occurs when two solutions of different concentrations are separated by a semi-permeable membrane. For example, an experiment can be set up where a weak salt solution is separated from a strong salt solution by a film of acetate. The acetate film is impermeable to the ions of the salt compound but permeable to water molecules. So water molecules travel across the membrane from the weaker solution to the stronger solution in an attempt to make both solutions the same concentration. This attempt does not fully succeed, as the pressure produced by the now-greater volume on the strong solution side pushes back against the membrane. This is the effect known as osmotic pressure. This process is very important in biological systems, where cell membranes are usually semi-permeable and the selective movement of water molecules and ions needs to be controlled by the body.
Osmosis is also often used industrially, and even domestically. Many homes have water purification systems fitted which rely on reverse osmosis. In reverse osmosis, pressure is applied to force the water molecules back in the opposite direction through the membrane. In this way, salt ions and other impurities are removed and a more-purified water is obtained.
It is always of interest when natural processes are imitated by our technology. God has made ideal designs, and it behooves us to copy them to make technological improvements. Author: Paul F. Taylor
Prayer: Thank You, Father, for the wonderful examples of design in nature which we can imitate. Thank You also that You have given humanity the intelligence to be able to make such technologies work. Amen.
Ref: Encyclopedia Britannica, < https://www.britannica.com/science/osmosis >, accessed 02/12/2018. Image: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
