Osmotic generation of 'anomalous' fluid pressures in geological environments

Article Abstract:

It is possible that shales produce osmotic pressures as large as around 20 MPa and maintain them for geologically significant periods of time. Osmotic pressures of this magnitude and duration provide an explanation of for many of the anomalies seen in geological settings. They need small shale porosity and large contrasts in the amount of dissolved solids in the pore waters. It appears that, in many cases, anomalous pressures could be derived osmotically from pre-existing chemical potential differences in the pore water.

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Mechanosensitive channels transduce osmosensitivity in supraoptic neurons

Article Abstract:

Changes in cell membrane tension due to cell volume changes affect stretch-inactivated cationic channels in mammalian central neurons, making hypothalamic magnocellular neurosecretory cells intrinsically osmosensitive. Fluid osmosity leads to cell volume changes, influencing mechanosensitive cation channels and regulating cell membrane voltage and action potential discharge.

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Brownian motion

Article Abstract:

Albert Einstein completed his doctoral thesis on osmotic pressure on 30 April 1905, in which he developed a statistical theory of liquid behavior based around the existence of molecules. This work, together with his subsequent paper on 'Brownian motion', constitutes one of the most important, but often over-looked, contributions that Einstein made to physics.

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