Phospholipid Bilayer
by courtneywalton
You’re probably like ‘What the heck is a phospholipid?”
- A phospholipid is a type of lipid. It is made up of a polar head and a nonpolar tail. Which basically means one part of the phospholipid (head) loves water and the other part (tail) hates water.
- Here is an image to help understand what I’m talking about here.
- Now obviously, if you hate something…you tend to avoid it. So the hydrophobic tails don’t want to be anywhere near water.
Bilayer means a layer of two
- Now the amazing part about this is that the phospholipids spontaneously form a lipid bilayer. In other words, if you were to put phospholipids in a solution, they would self-assemble (no input of energy is required) into a two-layered circle, with the polar heads facing outwards.
- Here is a picture to show you what I’m talking about.
- The red circles are the ‘polar heads’ and as you can see, they are facing outwards and the nonpolar tails are sandwhiched in the middle, thus not interacting with water.
Why do I think this is amazing?
- Oh, I’m so glad you asked! These phospholipid bilayers make up the cell membrane of every cell in our body. And the fact that they self-assemble, just blows my mind. The thought of these little squirly looking molecules falling into the exact place that they need to be, leads me to believe that it’s more than just a coincidence. But rather a thoughtful Creator delicately creating each and every component of our being.
Finding God...in the nerdiest way possible 
I’m all about self assembly in chem & bio! God is great and his power is seen every day in my life as a chemist!
Along the same lines, the very same interactions between these parts of the bilayer that “hate” water and go together are also in every single protein that makes up everything that lives. And the exact placement of those molecule chains having the same properties is so important to the exact function of every protein (from hair to muscle to brains to plant insides) that without it, life can cease to exist. or make my eyes blue and that person’s brown. The possibilities are endless!