As Prerna walks through the hallway, she continues

thinking about how energy-intensive it is to generate clean water using reverse

osmosis. This leads her to wonder how water moves across cell membranes in the

body. Water transport is essential for maintaining homeostasis—whether for

thermoregulation or osmolarity balance. The Reverse Osmosis (RO) membrane

reminds her of the cell membrane—both are semi-permeable, allowing selective

movement of water. Could nature have optimized water transport in a way that

engineers could learn from? Her thoughts turn to biomolecules... aquaporins.

Practice Question: What does Prerna wonder about

while comparing reverse osmosis to water transport in the body?