... 'perfect' environment). In the case of the onion cells, when placed with a drop of water, after 15 minutes, the cell had a turgid, or swollen, appearance under the microscope and felt fairly strong and sturdy, as the water was diffused through osmosis into the cell. This is because pure water has a 100% concentration of water, and the onion cell has much less, so the water diffused from a higher concentration to a lower concentration. With the 1% glucose solution, the cell had a flaccid appearance and the onion felt particularly floppy, because the cell membrane is pulled into the cell when the vacuole shrinks. This is what Plasmolysis is, the shrinkage of cell cytoplasm, with the membrane being pulled in. This happens because the water inside the vacuole moves outside the cell as the 1% glucose solution is a stronger solution than the solution in the vacuole, resulting in ...

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