Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Wonderful Word Wednesday


Today I am going a wee bit academic for my wonderful word. Back to my first anatomy and physiology lectures in fact. This word randomly jumped into my mind last week, but i am wondering if it is related to James and his love of water - the sea, puddles, harbours and rain are all favourites right now, but try to get him in the bath or shower - no way!
So, my word is Hydrophillic - which means water loving, as opposed to hydrophobic - both words fit James at the moment :)
These words are terms used to describe the molecules which make up the cell membrane - the phospholipid bilayer. The molecules have hydrophillic heads and hydrophobic tails and look a bit like this:This is how the membrane that surrounds all our cells is made up. I could go on, but I'm sure it is searchable if you want all the hydrogen bonding and negatively charged ions and stuff.
Hydrophillic - my word of the week. Thank you Tired Mummy for Wonderful Word.

2 comments:

Wyld Jane.. said...

wow what a word !!fantastic x

sunnymama said...

That is such a cool word! I must check out wonderful word wednesday :)