Biomembranes : Passive Permeability of Cell Membranes

Molecular transport of substances in the presence or absence of membranes is an ubiquitous phenomenon. Research workers from various disciplines in the biological and phys ical sciences are actively pursuing problems of transport. One of the important questions arising in numerous biological transport situations concerns the differentiation between passive and active transport. The latter is a more complex phenomenon involving metabolic processes, and the economy of thinking requires that attempts to explain any transport pro cess from passive mechanisms should be carried as far as pos sible before invoking more complex mechanisms. A precise de finition and circumscription of passive transport processes is of crucial importance. The symposium on "Passive permea bility of cell membranes" was therefore devoted to these pas sive transport processes and this book presents the proceed ings of the conference. This symposium, a satellite symposium of the XXV Inter national Congress of Physiological Sciences at Munich, Ger many, on July 25-31, 1971, was organized by the Department of Physiology, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Nether lands. It was held at the Hilton Hotel in Rotterdam on July 20-22, 1971. The meeting was made possible by generous fi nancial support from the Dutch Ministry of Education and Science (Ministerie van Onderwijs en Wetenschappenl and from Boehringer Mannheim N. V. , Ciba N. V. , Essex (Nederland) N. V. , Gist-Brocades N. V. , Hoffmann - La Roche N. V. , Merck, Sharp and Dohme Nederland N. V. , N. V. Philips, and Unilever N.