Engineer's New Book 'Osmosis: The Molecular Theory' Sheds New Light On Outdated Textbook Theory

DEKALB, Ill. - June 6, 2016 - PRLog -- A recounting of the initial discovery of osmosis in 1748 sounds like the set-up for a bad joke: "A priest carrying a pig walks into a bar and orders a cup of water and a glass of wine". More accurately, it began when French priest and physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet experimented with water, wine and a pig's bladder. Pouring wine into the permeable pig's bladder, and submerging it in water, Nollet found that instead of the wine filtering downwards through the membrane and into the water, the water flowed upwards into the wine. During the last 250 years, solutions to the intriguing phenomena of osmosis have been proposed, but none have explained the process in a comprehensive way. Larry Howlett's 'Osmosis: The Molecular Theory' introduces a new understanding of osmosis, solids, liquids,  vapor pressure and more, opening doors for application in chemistry, biology, medicine, physics, and diffusion.

An engineer, Howlett's own discovery emerged as he was designing and building chilled storage warehouses. He found that vapor pressure could be used as an important variable to control the temperature and relative humidity of the buildings. Realizing the superiority of this solution over traditional methods-and the impact it could have on seed storage-Howlett wrote several papers on the topic and tried to obtain support from others in the seed storage business. "My papers were quickly rejected," says Howlett. "I found out that I was using vapor pressure as the driving force for moisture transfer through a seed shell, but the text book theory for osmosis used osmotic pressure for the driving force." Coming across a paper from a seed storage expert, Dr. Christina T. Walters, Howlett learned that Walters introduced textbook osmosis into the fundamentals of seed storage. "I did not understand that part of the paper, and while she introduced text book osmosis to describe moisture transfer, she didn't explicitly use the term," he explains. But upon learning about text book osmosis, he decided to dig deeper.

Howlett discovered a contradiction between the practical engineering solution he applied to his chilled storage and the textbook theory of osmosis that was based upon osmotic pressure. "By the time that we discovered this conflict, we had already thoroughly tested our approach and had successful operating equipment," he says. Howlett continued his investigation to determine if he had made an error or if there was a problem with the textbook theory. Spoiler alert: it turned out to be the latter.   Many others had noted a problem with the text book theory also.

'Osmosis: The Molecular Theory' begins with brief introductory material to provide sufficient background, followed by five of Howlett's scientific papers that he copyrighted/published to explain osmosis and to offer a complete theory. He presents a straight-forward evaluation of the textbook theory and his variation that leads to a new and enlightened view of a fundamental molecular process. Coming in at less than one hundred pages, it is not a lengthy tome.  The osmosis theory introduces new concepts about the molecular behavior of solids, liquids and vapor pressure.  It also introduces proof of these concepts using well known theory and published data.  The proof utilizes integral calculus to compare theory with published data.  Although Howlett provides explanation for the mathematics, some are frightened by math. The book is best suited for those with a scientific background, and provides the equations and graphs that support and illustrate Howlett's theory. The book provides a clear understanding of van't Hoff's text book theory and how this approach differs.   It also provides a molecular model  for osmosis and vapor pressure.

Perhaps most exciting are the diverse potential applications beyond the pages of the book, including designing medicines to target diseased cells, producing low cost pure water, and gaining a deeper understanding of anatomy.

'Osmosis: The Molecular Theory' by Larry Howlett is published in eBook format by eBookIt.com (https://www.ebookit.com/tools/pd/Bo/eBookIt/booktitle-Osm...) and is also available in paperback.  The ebook is available through popular online retailers including Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and Apple's iBookstore. The paperback is available from Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Osmosis-Molecular-Dr-Larry-Howlett/...).

Review copies of 'Osmosis: The Molecular Theory' are available to media contacts upon request. Larry Howlett is available for interviews.

About the Author
Larry Howlett is an engineering consultant and has been the owner of HTMD Engineering since 1987. 'Osmosis: The Molecular Theory' is his first book.

About eBookIt.com
Since 2010, eBookIt.com (based in Sudbury, Massachusetts) has helped thousands of authors and publishers get their books converted to ebook format, and distributed to major ebook retailers, including Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Apple's iBookstore, Kobo, Google Play, Ingram Digital, Scribd, and Baker & Taylor.