Osmosis, bring back memories of school anyone?

I learned about osmosis the hard way.  When I was a child we went for a countyside picnic.  Thisbright spark thought it would be a good idea to put salt in the sandwiches before we left.  This, I thought would save the lettuce in them getting squashed.  WRONG! the lettuce was soggy and disgusting.  That is how I learned about osmosis.  The salt dissolved in the moisture of the surface of the lettuce and drew out the purer water from inside the lettuce leaf. Result – that soggy mess. The strong solution (salt) had passed through the semi-permeable membrane *(Leaf surface) into the weak solution inside the leaf.  * for semi-permeable, think of a cheap raincoat that lets through half the rain water!

That’s the lesson finished for today.  Norway has come up with a way to use the ‘soggy lettuce’ method, osmosis to generate free electricity.  Early days, but at least they aren’ sitting on their backsides doing nothing like some ‘developed ‘nations.  Want to read more?