Osmosis is the diffusion of water across a membrane from an area of higher water concentration (lower solute concentration) to lower water concentration (higher solute concentration).

In an environment that is hypotonic, the water concentration is greater outside the cell and the solute concentration is higher inside; the interior of the cell is hypertonic to the hypotonic surroundings. The net flow of water is into the cell.

Flash Animation Illustrating osmosis with cell in a hypotonic environment.swf by Gary E. Kaiser, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology, The Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville Campus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://faculty.ccbcmd.edu/~gkaiser/index.html.

Last updated: Feb., 2018
Please send comments and inquiries to Dr. Gary Kaiser