Overview of lipids, covering fats and oils, saturated and unsaturated fats, triglycerides (triacylglycerols), phospholipids, and steroids.
Log in alina 8 years agoPosted 8 years ago. Direct link to alina's post “When a micelle is formed,...” When a micelle is formed, are the hydrophobic tails packed together just because they don't want to touch the water or is there also bonding happening between the tails? • (11 votes) Matt B 8 years agoPosted 8 years ago. Direct link to Matt B's post “There is bonding too (van...” There is bonding too (van der Waals forces) although these are very weak. The packaging happens primarily because of the hydrophilic parts being attracted to each other and reducing the entropy of the system (=reducing the surface area, and forming a sphere with the hydrophobic parts in the center) (24 votes) Michael 9 years agoPosted 9 years ago. Direct link to Michael's post “How do saturated and unsa...” How do saturated and unsaturated fats affect the fluidity of cell membranes? How do the length of fatty acid tails and the presence of cholesterol in cell membranes affect fluidity? • (11 votes) Jannat Javed 9 years agoPosted 9 years ago. Direct link to Jannat Javed's post “unsaturated fats and shor...” unsaturated fats and shorter fatty acid tails increase the fluidity; (15 votes) Sai Saketh 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Sai Saketh's post “Do the number of carbons ...” Do the number of carbons in a fatty acid affect the properties of the fat? • (5 votes) Najam Zubair 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Najam Zubair's post “Yes, it does. You can use...” Yes, it does. You can use penguins as an analogy to this concept. Penguins contain warmth (energy, thermal energy) in a cold environment by clumping together. The more penguins, the more energy conserved and not lost to the environment. Let's say one penguin equates one carbon. In the context of a fatty acid, the more carbons you have, the more "stabilized" the fatty acid is. The net energy needed to break the carbon bonds would be higher, and the molecule will therefore have higher melting point (and less water solubility). (14 votes) Todd Doering 8 years agoPosted 8 years ago. Direct link to Todd Doering's post “Where does lipolysis fit ...” Where does lipolysis fit into this? • (6 votes) Jarrah Anderson 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Jarrah Anderson's post “Because fats are capable ...” Because fats are capable of being oxidised far more times than carbohydrates the majority of energy stores are kept in lipids throughout the body. Adipose tissue and adipocytes is an example of this. (4 votes) alina 8 years agoPosted 8 years ago. Direct link to alina's post “"Sequestering the fatty a...” "Sequestering the fatty acid tails on the inside of a micelle frees up the water molecules, allowing the system to take on a greater number of microstates (that is, increasing its entropy)." But I would think that the water molecules aren't "freed up" because they'll just form a bond with the phosphate group...(the head group) Or am i wrong? Thanks! • (4 votes) Matt B 8 years agoPosted 8 years ago. Direct link to Matt B's post “The bonds between H2O and...” The bonds between H2O and phosphate are not permanent and not strong either. They are simply polar interactions. If micelle were not formed then more space is taken up by the hydrophobic parts which actually reduce entropy because water cannot do anything (bond) with unipolar things. With the micelle formation, there are more water molecules together which can rotate, move, and hydrogen bond to nearby water molecules, and this increases the entropy. (8 votes) Julia Wilson 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to Julia Wilson's post “Are saturated fats in pla...” Are saturated fats in plants and unsaturated fats in animals, or the other way around? • (4 votes) tyersome 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to tyersome's post “Both plants and animals c...” Both plants and animals contain both saturated and unsaturated fats and the relative amount can vary depending on the species, tissue, and growth conditions of the organism. In general, plant fats tend to be more unsaturated, while saturated fats are more common in animals. You may find this wikipedia article to be a useful introduction to this subject: (5 votes) Prince Baadu 9 years agoPosted 9 years ago. Direct link to Prince Baadu's post “what is the biochemical f...” what is the biochemical functions of all the soluble fats, that is vitamin A,D,E and K • (3 votes) Jarrah Anderson 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Jarrah Anderson's post “Vitamin A-you can get it...” Vitamin A Vitamin D Vitamin E Vitamin K (7 votes) Vishal a year agoPosted a year ago. Direct link to Vishal's post “This sentence in the last...” This sentence in the last paragraph doesn't sound right. "Of course, cholesterol is also found in the bloodstream, and blood levels of cholesterol are what we often hear about at the doctor’s office" Should it be "Of course, cholesterol is also found in the bloodstream, and cholesterol levels of the blood are what we often hear about at the doctor’s office" ? • (5 votes) Zander Hall 8 years agoPosted 8 years ago. Direct link to Zander Hall's post “Out of curiosity are the ...” Out of curiosity are the "oils" secreted by your skin and hair also made up of fats? • (4 votes) Jarrah Anderson 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Jarrah Anderson's post “And due to their oily nat...” And due to their oily nature most likely unsaturated/ short fatty acids! (3 votes) Emma 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to Emma's post “Why do fatty acid tails p...” Why do fatty acid tails provide us with so much energy when we eat them? • (3 votes) tyersome 6 years agoPosted 6 years ago. Direct link to tyersome's post “This is a good question, ...” This is a good question, but one that I think you have enough information to answer on your own. Therefore, I'm going to ask you some questions in response to help you figure out (some of) the answers yourself. Answer #1 How does this compare with the oxidation state of the carbon in carbohydrates (the other group of macromolecules that are often used to store energy)? How would you expect this to affect a oxidative process like cellular respiration? Answer #2 How many moles of carbon are present in a gram of glucose (a "typical" carbohydrate)? Do the answers to those two sets of questions help you answer your question? If you are not familiar with reduction and oxidation states, then I encourage you to start working through the Chemistry material on KhanAcademy: That may look like a lot of work, but you've probably watched many of the videos already under "Chemistry of life". A deep understanding of chemistry is essential to anyone interested in modern biological sciences or medicine, so I really encourage you to take the time to work though all of the chemistry material. (4 votes)Want to join the conversation?
the presence of cholesterol basically adds structure and keeps the cell from being squished, but doesn't keep it super firm and rigid either. (which is a good thing)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturated_fat
-you can get it from carrots, it's incredibly important for the photoreceptors in your eyes, without it you can't see.
- necessary for proper bone and tooth mineralisation, your body can produce it if you have adequate UV/ sunlight intake otherwise you need to supplement it or you will get bone resorption which is not a good time.
- shown to improve the reproductive system in rats, in humans however it is a very important antioxidant, takes radicals that would otherwise be harmful to the cells in the body out of circulation.
- a very important clotting factor, helps you mitigate bleeding etc.
What is the oxidation state of the carbons in the fatty acid tail?
How many moles of carbon are present in a gram of tetradecane — a 14 carbon alkane (a reasonable comparison for the tails of the fatty acids found in food)?
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry
