TY - JOUR T1 - The physics of osmotic pressure JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/116806 SP - 116806 AU - M. G. Bowler Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/14/116806.abstract N2 - The proper application of the virial theorem to the origin of osmotic pressure provides a simple, vivid and complete explanation of the physical processes involved; osmosis is driven by differential solvent pressures. This simple and intuitive notion is widely disregarded, but the virial theorem allows an exact formulation and unifies a number of different treatments. It is closely related to a kinetic treatment devised by Ehrenfest over 100 years ago. ER -