Why Can Water Diffuse Easily Through the Cell Membrane?

[mark1]

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?[?]

 

[nautica]

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.

Nautica