Membrane
noun
A thin sheet or layer usually covering something or dividing something.
The cell membrane covers the cell and protects its inside parts.
Often appears as...
- cell membrane
- mucous membrane
Usage tips
Scientific
noun
In the field of technology, a membrane is a thin material that allows some things to pass through but stops others.
In water treatment, a special membrane is used to filter out impurities.
Often appears as...
- membrane filtration
- membrane technology
Usage tips
Technical
noun
In music, the vibrating part of a drum or other musical instrument.
The drum's membrane is made of a special type of material to create the best sound.
Often appears as...
- drum membrane
- vibrating membrane
Usage tips
Arts
noun
A thin sheet or layer usually covering something or dividing something.
The cell membrane covers the cell and protects its inside parts.
Often appears as...
- cell membrane
- mucous membrane
Usage tips
Scientific
noun
In the field of technology, a membrane is a thin material that allows some things to pass through but stops others.
In water treatment, a special membrane is used to filter out impurities.
Often appears as...
- membrane filtration
- membrane technology
Usage tips
Technical
noun
In music, the vibrating part of a drum or other musical instrument.
The drum's membrane is made of a special type of material to create the best sound.
Often appears as...
- drum membrane
- vibrating membrane
Usage tips
Arts
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Biological Importance
Membranes are crucial for living organisms, controlling what enters or leaves cells, like a security guard.
Medicines target the cell membrane to treat diseases.
Pro Tip 2/3Visual Metaphor
Imagine a membrane as an ultra-thin pizza base, delicate and specifically designed to hold toppings.
A cell's membrane might look like pizza dough under a microscope.
Pro Tip 3/3Boundary Descriptor
Membranes serve as dividing lines, separating spaces or substances from each other.
The mucous membrane marks the boundary of the inner nose.
Pro Tip 1/3Biological Importance
Membranes are crucial for living organisms, controlling what enters or leaves cells, like a security guard.
Medicines target the cell membrane to treat diseases.
Pro Tip 2/3Visual Metaphor
Imagine a membrane as an ultra-thin pizza base, delicate and specifically designed to hold toppings.
A cell's membrane might look like pizza dough under a microscope.
Pro Tip 3/3Boundary Descriptor
Membranes serve as dividing lines, separating spaces or substances from each other.
The mucous membrane marks the boundary of the inner nose.
Pro Tip 1/3Biological Importance
Membranes are crucial for living organisms, controlling what enters or leaves cells, like a security guard.
Medicines target the cell membrane to treat diseases.
Pro Tip 2/3Visual Metaphor
Imagine a membrane as an ultra-thin pizza base, delicate and specifically designed to hold toppings.
A cell's membrane might look like pizza dough under a microscope.
Pro Tip 3/3Boundary Descriptor
Membranes serve as dividing lines, separating spaces or substances from each other.
The mucous membrane marks the boundary of the inner nose.
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Video examples
Why do blood types...
allowing the cells to transport it throughout the body. But they also have another kind of complex protein on the outside of the cell membrane. These proteins, known as antigens, communicate with white blood cells, immune cells that protect against infection. Antigens serve as identifying markers,
Video examples
What happens when you...
through cooling methods like the evaporation of sweat. But with uncompensable heat stress, your body is unable to lose enough heat due to overexertion or high temperatures in humidity, which raises your core temperature beyond normal levels. This causes the proteins and cell membranes to denature,
Video examples
Cell vs. virus: A battle...
from the smallest one-celled bacteria to the giant blue whale to you. Each cell in your body is surrounded by a cell membrane, a thick flexible layer made of fats and proteins, that surrounds and protects the inner components. It's semipermeable, meaning that it lets some thing pass in and out
Video examples
Oxygen’s surprisingly...
that are surrounded by capillaries. Together, the alveolar wall and capillaries make a two-cell thick membrane that brings blood and oxygen close enough for diffusion. These oxygen-enriched cells are then carried from the lungs through the cardiovascular network,
Video examples
Zombie Parasites PIPE Nat...
that you can see the fungal tissue through the eye membrane. So this is a video of an ant this is a different species of ant. That's also been infected by this cordyceps fungus-- Ophiocordyceps fungus. It's in its last hour of life. It's just twitching there
Video examples
James Kunstler: How bad...
Public space. This is a good public space. It's a place worth caring about. It's well defined. It is emphatically an outdoor public room. It has something that is terribly important -- it has what's called an active and permeable membrane around the edge.
Video examples
What happens when you...
and lies in how the brain responds when something strikes it. The brain is made of soft fatty tissue, with a consistency something like jello. Inside its protective membranes and the skull's hard casing, this delicate organ is usually well-shielded.
Video examples
Inside the new Old World...
multi-layered complex wing membranes would be one of the most interesting experiences an anatomist could have three different kinds of flying dragons inhabit our alien world with heads
Video examples
Cell membranes are way...
Cell membranes are structures of contradictions. These oily films are hundreds of times thinner than a strand of spider silk, yet strong enough to protect the delicate contents of
Video examples
The Deadly Portuguese...
it floats with the help of a gas-filled bladder topped by a vertical membrane with that serving as a sail it maintains
Video examples
Why do blood types...
allowing the cells to transport it throughout the body. But they also have another kind of complex protein on the outside of the cell membrane. These proteins, known as antigens, communicate with white blood cells, immune cells that protect against infection. Antigens serve as identifying markers,
Video examples
What happens when you...
through cooling methods like the evaporation of sweat. But with uncompensable heat stress, your body is unable to lose enough heat due to overexertion or high temperatures in humidity, which raises your core temperature beyond normal levels. This causes the proteins and cell membranes to denature,
Video examples
Cell vs. virus: A battle...
from the smallest one-celled bacteria to the giant blue whale to you. Each cell in your body is surrounded by a cell membrane, a thick flexible layer made of fats and proteins, that surrounds and protects the inner components. It's semipermeable, meaning that it lets some thing pass in and out
Video examples
Oxygen’s surprisingly...
that are surrounded by capillaries. Together, the alveolar wall and capillaries make a two-cell thick membrane that brings blood and oxygen close enough for diffusion. These oxygen-enriched cells are then carried from the lungs through the cardiovascular network,
Video examples
Zombie Parasites PIPE Nat...
that you can see the fungal tissue through the eye membrane. So this is a video of an ant this is a different species of ant. That's also been infected by this cordyceps fungus-- Ophiocordyceps fungus. It's in its last hour of life. It's just twitching there
Video examples
James Kunstler: How bad...
Public space. This is a good public space. It's a place worth caring about. It's well defined. It is emphatically an outdoor public room. It has something that is terribly important -- it has what's called an active and permeable membrane around the edge.
Video examples
What happens when you...
and lies in how the brain responds when something strikes it. The brain is made of soft fatty tissue, with a consistency something like jello. Inside its protective membranes and the skull's hard casing, this delicate organ is usually well-shielded.
Video examples
Inside the new Old World...
multi-layered complex wing membranes would be one of the most interesting experiences an anatomist could have three different kinds of flying dragons inhabit our alien world with heads
Video examples
Cell membranes are way...
Cell membranes are structures of contradictions. These oily films are hundreds of times thinner than a strand of spider silk, yet strong enough to protect the delicate contents of
Video examples
The Deadly Portuguese...
it floats with the help of a gas-filled bladder topped by a vertical membrane with that serving as a sail it maintains
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Elizabeth Strout
American Author
I'm so deeply interested in what it feels like to be other people that I get to operate under the illusion when I'm writing fiction that I'm not really revealing that much about myself. But, of course, I am, and I know that I am. And yet there's this sort of membrane that I get to work behind as I write my fiction, and I love it.
Quote examples
Dimitar Sasselov
Bulgarian Scientist
When we think of what is necessary for the phenomenon that we call life, we think of compartmentalization, keeping the molecules which are important for life in a membrane, isolated from the rest of the environment, but yet, in an environment in which they actually could originate together.
Quote examples
Paul Stamets
American Scientist
I believe that mycelium is the neurological network of nature. Interlacing mosaics of mycelium infuse habitats with information-sharing membranes. These membranes are aware, react to change, and collectively have the long-term health of the host environment in mind.
Quote examples
Richard Smalley
American Scientist
Carbon has this genius of making a chemically stable, two-dimensional, one-atom-thick membrane in a three-dimensional world. And that, I believe, is going to be very important in the future of chemistry and technology in general.
Quote examples
Geraldine Brooks
Australian Journalist
I swim in a sea of words. They flow around me and through me and, by a process that is not fully clear to me, some delicate hidden membrane draws forth the stuff that is the necessary condition of my life.
Quote examples
Jay Parini
American Writer
I think the membrane - I say that the membrane between life and death is perilously thin. And I do think the story of Jesus, this great mythical story, can have transforming value in our lives.
Quote examples
Yotam Ottolenghi
Israeli Chef
The only way reliably to gauge the heat of any particular chilli is to cut it in half, so exposing the core and membranes, and to dab the cut surface on your tongue.
Quote examples
David Shields
American Author
I want work that, possessing as thin a membrane as possible between life and art, foregrounds the question of how the writer solves being alive.
Quote examples
Nam June Paik
American Artist
Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality. Technology has become the body's new membrane of existence.
Quote examples
Frans Lanting
Dutch Photographer
Life needs a membrane to contain itself so it can replicate and mutate.
Quote examples
Elizabeth Strout
American Author
I'm so deeply interested in what it feels like to be other people that I get to operate under the illusion when I'm writing fiction that I'm not really revealing that much about myself. But, of course, I am, and I know that I am. And yet there's this sort of membrane that I get to work behind as I write my fiction, and I love it.
Quote examples
Dimitar Sasselov
Bulgarian Scientist
When we think of what is necessary for the phenomenon that we call life, we think of compartmentalization, keeping the molecules which are important for life in a membrane, isolated from the rest of the environment, but yet, in an environment in which they actually could originate together.
Quote examples
Paul Stamets
American Scientist
I believe that mycelium is the neurological network of nature. Interlacing mosaics of mycelium infuse habitats with information-sharing membranes. These membranes are aware, react to change, and collectively have the long-term health of the host environment in mind.
Quote examples
Richard Smalley
American Scientist
Carbon has this genius of making a chemically stable, two-dimensional, one-atom-thick membrane in a three-dimensional world. And that, I believe, is going to be very important in the future of chemistry and technology in general.
Quote examples
Geraldine Brooks
Australian Journalist
I swim in a sea of words. They flow around me and through me and, by a process that is not fully clear to me, some delicate hidden membrane draws forth the stuff that is the necessary condition of my life.
Quote examples
Jay Parini
American Writer
I think the membrane - I say that the membrane between life and death is perilously thin. And I do think the story of Jesus, this great mythical story, can have transforming value in our lives.
Quote examples
Yotam Ottolenghi
Israeli Chef
The only way reliably to gauge the heat of any particular chilli is to cut it in half, so exposing the core and membranes, and to dab the cut surface on your tongue.
Quote examples
David Shields
American Author
I want work that, possessing as thin a membrane as possible between life and art, foregrounds the question of how the writer solves being alive.
Quote examples
Nam June Paik
American Artist
Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality. Technology has become the body's new membrane of existence.
Quote examples
Frans Lanting
Dutch Photographer
Life needs a membrane to contain itself so it can replicate and mutate.
Example 1 of 10
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