Cell membranes are composed of many phospholipids. Phospholipids are made up of two parts... ( the head and the tail ). The head is hydrophilic- 'loves water'. The tail is the opposide it hates water and it is called hydrophobic. A hydrophobic phospholipid consists of 16 to 18 carbon; they also contain small amounts of oxygen. These opposing parts of the phospholipid makes up the main structure of the cell membrane. If you comnine many phospholipids this makes up a cell membrane. Fatty acids are usually 16 to 22 carbons long. There are two types of fatty acids, saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fatty acids have no carbon to carbon double bonds. Unsaturated fatty acids have one to three double bonds along the carbon chain. Fats are storage for energy and insulating molecules. Fats contain twice as much energy as carbohydrates which means we could survive off fatts longer then carbs. Unsaturated fat have fatty acids, saturated fat has none...
I will later post a picture that my peer group and I drew of membrane structure...
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