Q.During rainy season wooden doors warp and become difficult to open or to close because of ...............

Imbibition: When a Seed Drinks Without a Thirst

Imagine a dry seed. It looks lifeless, hard, and shrunken. Now drop it into moist soil. Within hours, it swells, softens, and cracks open — even before any metabolic activity begins. The seed hasn't "decided" to grow yet. Something purely physical is happening: it is pulling water into its own substance, against gravity, without any living pump or osmotic gradient.

That phenomenon is imbibition.

The Intuition: A Sponge, Not a Straw

Think of a dry sponge placed on a puddle. Water creeps into its pores, the sponge swells, and it becomes heavier. No suction is needed — the sponge wants the water because its internal surfaces are thirsty. The same happens with a seed, but at a molecular level. …