Water network percolation on yeast as an experiment proposal for advanced physics laboratories for bioscience students

Water is a crucial element of every living system, but its importance reaches further than biology. Thus, studying properties of water in different setups creates opportunities to bring together students of many disciplines. Here we propose a laboratory experiment on water network percolation in hydrated yeast, which enables description of the behavior of the water network surrounding living organisms during the dehydration process. Since the problem is interesting from a physical as well as biological point of view, the experiment can be introduced to student labs of both disciplines. In the experiment a simple RC circuit is used to observe 3D and 2D percolation phenomena in a sample of yeast. The parameters characterizing the phenomenon, such as percolation threshold and critical exponent, derived from the experimental data, provide information about the spatial organization of the water network surrounding yeast cells. The results obtained by four bioscience students using a simplified experimental setup are comparable with those presented in the literature and obtained by utilization of much more complex experimental methods.