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Science 15 February 1974:
Vol. 183. no. 4125, pp. 666 - 668
DOI: 10.1126/science.183.4125.666
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Articles

Viscosity of Cellular Protoplasm

Alec D. Keith 1 and Wallace Snipes 1

1 Department of Biophysics, Pennsylvania State University, Unversity Park

The protoplasmic viscosity was studied by using a small spin label having high permeability and broad solubility properties and nickel chloride as an extracellular spin-subtracting agent to localize signal inside cells. The viscosity is variable and in some cells is many times that of water or phospholipids, suggesting that lateral diffusion in biological membranes is important to cell function.


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