PARAMETRIC PUMPING AND LIVING CELL

Wilhelm suggested that parametric pumping might serve as a candidate model for active biological transport. In scaling the model to cell dimensions one encounters several difficulties. It is not easy to fit a process of this kind into the biological membrane, as in doing so the number of adsorbent sites must be drastically reduced. Perhaps this decrease of effective sites will make the process inefficient on the biological level. The next difficulty has to do with the coupling of the oscillatory fields. While oscillatory electrical fields of high frequency at the cell surface are easily conceivable (and perhaps measurable), oscillatory mass transfer fields of high frequency are less likely in the very few (if any) pores of the biological membrane. Beside the experimental approach indicated by Wilhelm, a computational approach, aimed at scaling the mathematical model to a low number of adsorbent sites, might serve as a basis for verification or rejection of the model. © 1969, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.