A Little Something About What You Need

     So I am sure you have heard a lot about carbs and how they are awful for you.  You probably especially hear this from those people whose main desire in life is to be super skinny. I bet your thinking, "But all the delicious food has carbs in it! Am I not supposed to be eating anything that tastes good?" That's a disappointing thought! Well have no fear! I am hear to tell you all about these bad boys that they call carbs.
     Carbohydrates (the more technical term for carbs) are a macromolecule. Carbohydrates are used as an immediate energy source in living things but they also give structure to a variety of organisms. Most carbohydrates have the ratio of 1:2:1 for carbon to hydrogen to oxygen.

     Glucose is an example of a carbohydrate, but not just any carbohydrate, a monosaccharide to be specific. A monosaccharide is a simple sugar that canot be broken down by hydrolysis. Monosaccharides have this crazy name because "monos" means single and "sacchar" means sugar. Get it? It's made of only one single sugar; they are a simple sugar. Yeah, well now that you hopefully got that down I can tell you that these simple sugars can have a backbone of three to seven carbons. The molecular formula is some multiple of CH2O. Which means...that with every carbon item it is bonded to a H and a -OH molecule. However, this is not always true, there are a few exceptions. This is just the basic formula. Glucose has six carbon atoms and therefor called a hexose. its molecular formula is C6H12O6. Ribose, on the other hand, is made up of five carbon atoms and therefore called a pentos. But usually these monosaccharaides dont stay that way for long.

     When two monosaccharides combine in a dehydration reaction  you get a disaccharide. For example when you combine glucose and fructose (two monosaccharides) you get the disaccharide of sucrose, also known as table sugar.  Sucrose is the form of sugar that is transported in plants. Another disaccharide, lactose, is made when glucose and galactose are combined. I'm sure you have heard of a few people who are lactose intolerant. This means that that person cannot break down the lactose disaccharide.
     Polysaccharides are the next step up. Polysaccharides are polymers(macromolecule consisting of covalently bonded monomers) of monosaccharides or a bunch of monosaccharides combined together. These carbs can also be called complex carbohydrates.  Some types of polysaccharides are used as short-term energy storage. These can be used as storage because they are not soluble and they are bigger than sugar. because of their large size they can't pass through the plasma membrane. When you need energy the pollysaccharide is broken down to release its sugar molecules.

These are polysaccharides that are found in  plant cells

     So in other words these carbs are not some awful things that you should steer clear from. You actually do need them. Just make sure you are not consuming too much more than you need.

Oh The Joy of Fluid Mosaic Models

   A fluid mosaic model is a model for the plasma membrane based on the changing location and pattern of protein molecules in a fluid phospholipid bilayer. The proteins in the model are just scattered about the membrane. This model was introduced in1972 by S. Singer and G. Nicolson.
   The plasma membrane separates what is inside the cell and what is outside. It controls what enters and exits to help the cell maintain a steady internal environment.
   There are many complex structures that make this what it is.

   The microfilamants help the cytosceketon to maintain its shape, but still allow some cells to move.
   The phospholopids make up the cell membrane. The are made of two major parts: the head and the tail. The head is the polar/hygrophillic phosphate groups. The tail shows the nonpolar/hydrophobic fatty acid chains of phosphate. The heads of the phospholipid face where the water is found, to the inside and the outside of the cell. The phospholipid tails face towards each other in between the heads.
   A glycolipid is a lipid that has sugar attached to it. This serves as a marker for cell recognition and provides energy.
Cholesterol  helps by stiffening and making the membrane stronger. This helps control the fluidity.
 
   Proteins!
There are many different kinds of proteins.
Channel proteins assist with the passage of different molecules through the membrane. They contain a channel that allows molecules to simply move from one place to another.
Carrier proteins also help with moving things across the membrane. They combined themselves with a substance and assist it in moving across the membrane. By transporting potassium and sodium ions across the cell membrane of a nerve it makes nerve conduction possible.
Cell recognition proteins  are glycoproteins. These help the body in recognizing when it is being invaded by pathogens(a disease-causing agent) so it can react with an immune reaction. If we didn't have these pathogens would be able to invade our body without restrictions.