How does iodine work as an indicator?

2 answers

Iodine detects starches. http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/redox/faq/starch-as-redox-indicator.shtml
Why might starch not be able to diffuse but iodine can? I'm writing a lab report for a lab we did in Biology class, but I'm not sure what reason to put for why the starch could not diffuse through the bag we used in the experiment but the iodine could.