I Can Explain - Oil - Hydrophobic - V.s. vinegar - Hydrophilic - [part i]

oil versus vinegar what does this have to do with soap bubbles or biology I can explain what these three relatively diverse subjects have in common is something called the hydrophobic hydrophilic interactions something we'll be discussing in this episode the detergent molecules that makes up the soap bubble cell wall and the fat molecule that makes up the cells plasma membrane both have a common chemical characteristic that characteristic is called amphipathic amphi meaning both pathic meaning state so it means both state what are these two states? well one of them is hydrophilic hydro meaning water philic meaning loving, water loving the other is hydrophobic water hating. what is occurring in these amphipathic molecules is the water heating part of the molecules they interact and of course the water loving partner the molecules they interact with the outside water so this interaction causes a membrane to form a thin wall in which the hydrophobic environment is being hell together or pushed together by its own interactions but also the water is pushing it inward these are weak interactions obviously but these relatively weak interactions actually give this membrane this plasma membrane or the wall or the soap bubble some unique characteristic and you may have already seen this happen see to smaller soap bubbles can fuse together easily to make a bigger bubble. this is actually occurring in the plasma membrane and it's referred to as the cell sealing characteristic of the plasma membrane the following diagram should help you further understand how the hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions occur to make dis plasma membrane this diagram represents the lipid bilayer of the cell plasma membrane the lipid is the biological that molecule and bilayer by meaning two layers why is this a bilayer? well there are two layers of this amphipathic molecule the lipid you can see the yellow circles that is the hydrophilic aspects of this lipid and the squiggly lines are the hydrophobic sides of this molecule the hydrophobic aspects of this molecule, the squiggly lines, then interact with each other and make this middle region which is water hating region, the hydrophobic region the water loving part, the the hydrophilic aspects of the lipid molecules they get exposed to the outside so you can see there that they're interacting with the water of the outside environment and so that pushes the lipid by Lear together making this strong hydrophobic middle region these are very weak interactions true but this weak interaction actually gives this membrane a really important feature which is self-sealing and you remember those two soap bubbles they come together and they make another bigger soap bubble the air self-sealing, they fuse together this next diagram should help you orient yourself a little bit better in relationship to the cell this figure shows an expansion of that cell membrane, it's also called the plasma membrane or plasma mmm lemma don't worry most biological components have multiple names it depends on the scientist you talking to in that last box there in the diagram there it represents the individual lipid molecule here it's a phospholipid because it has a phosphate group attached to it in its hydrophilic head so this phospholipid shows this amphipathic nature to these molecules it has both that hydrophilic head the water loving head and a hydrophobic tale though water hating tail now if we go back to the box it says phospholipid bilayer we can see how these individual phospholipid molecules interact with the hydrophobic tails interacting with each other on the bilayer, and making that hydrophobic interior resulting in a hydrophilic exterior