Why Can Water Diffuse Easily Through the Cell Membrane?

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Hydrophilic molecules struggle to diffuse through cell membranes due to the hydrophobic nature of the lipid bilayer. However, water, despite being a polar molecule, can diffuse through cell membranes more readily than expected. This is attributed to the discovery of specialized "gated" channels for water, which was recognized in the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to an M.D. This finding shifted the understanding from simple diffusion to a more complex mechanism involving these channels, highlighting the unique properties of water in cellular biology.
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i learned in my cellular biology class today that hydrophillic molecules don't diffuse through the membrane easily, since the inside of the membrane is hydrophobic. my question is that water easily diffuses through the cell membrane, and water isn't just hydrophillic, it is hydro! so why can water diffuse easily through the membrane?[?]
 
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The 2003 Nobel prize in chemistry was acutally given to an M.D. for the discovery of "gated" channels for H2O. For years we thought it was simple diffusion that water passed, but now we have found that there are channels. Quite simple, we should have always known this.

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