Fun with lipids!

One of my favorite things to play with growing up (maybe now still) were bubbles. The small air filled spheres that pop releasing a small spray of water- I loved them.

Learning about lipids and looking into the structure of detergents that are products of lipids, I discovered that they are the source of the joy that is bubbles! A bubble is basically a spherical bi-layer of detergent molecules kind of like the vesicles we looked at in class. However, the orientation of the detergent in a bubble is such that the hydrophillic heads are in the middle of the bi-layer and enclose a thin layer of water while the hydrophobic tails face the middle and the outside of bubble where they are in contact with air.

I can now review my understanding of biochemical concepts while relieving finals stress!

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