Osmotic pressure is the force generated by the desire of water to move through a membrane to "balance" the concentration of particles on each side of the membrane barrier. The cell’s cytoplasm is packed with particles compared to the water in which cells live. Water from the external environment will pass through the membrane to dilute the concentration of cytoplasmic particulates. The cell would swell up with water and the pressure would cause the delicate membrane bilayer to rupture, killing the cell. The glycocalyx exoskeleton resists life threatening osmotic pressure.

Bacteria are the cellular equivalent of invertebrates, (animals not possessing an internal supportive skeleton (e.g., clams, insects, jelly fish). While the skeleton protects the bacterium, its rigid nature also limits it. The bacterial cell size is limited by its outer capsule. The size limitation restricts the amount of membrane the cell can possess. Membrane surface area is proportional to awareness, based upon the number of IMPs it can contain. The bacterial capsule limits the cell’s evolution since there is a cap on the number of units of perception the membrane can contain. 

In fact, most of the bacterium’s membrane surface area is used to house the necessary IMP complexes required for cell survival. However, each bacterium is also capable of learning about six additional environmental "signals." For example, a bacterium may acquire the ability to resist an antibiotic introduced into the environment. It does this by creating a surface receptor that binds and inhibits the molecules of the antibiotic. The new receptor is fundamentally the equivalent of a protein "antibody" that our immune cells create to neutralize an invasive antigen. 

The creation of a new receptor, by definition, implies that there must be a new gene created to remember the amino acid code for that protein. In bacteria, these "new" memory genes are present as tiny circles of DNA called plasmids. The plasmids are not physically attached to cell’s heredity-providing chromosome and float freely in the cytoplasm. Bacteria are capable of creating an average of about six different plasmids, each derived from a unique learning "experience." The limitation on the number of plasmids the cell possesses is not due to an inability to make DNA. For the bacterium can make thousands of copies of any of the individual plasmids it possesses. The limitations must be related to the fact that each "new" protein perception complex requires a unit of surface area to express its functions. The inability to expand its membrane (i.e., surface area) limits the bacterium’s ability to acquire new perceptions (awareness).

The more awareness the greater the ability to survive. Limitations upon individuals increasing their awareness, led to bacteria living in loosely knit communities. If an individual bacterium can "learn" six facts about the environment, than a hundred bacteria are collectively capable of being aware of 600 facts. Bacteria developed mechanisms to transfer copies of their plasmids to other bacteria in the community. By transferring copies of their "learned" DNA, they share their "awareness" with the community. Bacteria can transfer a plasmid to another individual. The recipient bacterium can use the donated plasmid’s "awareness" during its life, but generally can not pass copies of the plasmid on to its daughter cell progeny.