News tagged with fatty acids

Arctic bacteria help in the search to find life on moon Europa

In a fjord in Canada scientists have found a landscape similar to one of Jupiter's icy moons: Europa. It consists of a frozen and sulphurous environment, where sulphur associated with Arctic bacteria offer ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 18 hours ago | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Supercharged safflower

This scientific achievement has produced safflower seed oil that contains more than 90 per cent of this valuable fatty acid, the highest level of purity of an individual fatty acid currently available in any ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 21, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New research discovers metabolic adaptation to high altitudes

When mammals are cold, they can employ physical changes to stay warm -- such as intense shivering. Like any form of aerobic exercise, though, "shivering thermogenesis" is especially challenging at high altitudes ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cellular secrets of plant fatty acid production understood; discovery could boost bioeconomy

(Phys.org) -- Research groups from Iowa State University and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have uncovered the function of three plant proteins, a discovery that could help plant scientists boost ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 14, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

PhD student grows bell pepper with a hint of chilli

Martijn Eggink is cultivating a new bell pepper variety with an exotic flavour. This is the basis for his PhD research at Wageningen UR, in which he will correlate the flavour of the bell pepper to sugars, acids and aroma ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 03, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

New synthetic biology technique boosts microbial production of diesel fuel

(PhysOrg.com) -- Significant boosts in the microbial production of clean, green and renewable biodiesel fuel has been achieved with the development of a new technique in synthetic biology by researchers with ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 26, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (11) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

New study of pine nuts leaves mystery of 'pine mouth' unsolved

A new study of the composition of pine nuts, including those associated with "pine mouth," leaves unsolved the decade-old mystery of why thousands of people around the world have experienced disturbances in ...

Chemistry / Other

created Mar 14, 2012 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers develop a new candidate for a cleaner, greener and renewable diesel fuel

(PhysOrg.com) -- A class of chemical compounds best known today for fragrance and flavor may one day provide the clean, green and renewable fuel with which truck and auto drivers fill their tanks. Researchers ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 14, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Researcher sees marine nutraceuticals as growth industry

The marine nutraceutical industry is booming in Europe and Asia, and it has taken off in recent years in Canada as well. While the industry is still in its infancy in the United States, University of Rhode Island researcher ...

Chemistry / Other

created Mar 13, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Algae for your fuel tank: New process for producing biodiesel from microalgae oil

The available amount of fossil fuels is limited and their combustion in vehicle motors increases atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The generation of fuels from biomass as an alternative is on the rise. In ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jan 10, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Wine dregs shown to improve cows' milk

Feeding dairy cows the stems, seeds and skins from wine grapes boosts milk production and dramatically cuts the animal's methane emissions, Australian researched published Thursday shows.

Biology / Other

created Dec 08, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

E. coli could convert sugar to biodiesel at 'an extraordinary rate'

(PhysOrg.com) -- When it comes to making biodiesel cheaply and efficiently enough to be commercially feasible, E. coli may prove to be "the little bacterial engine that could," say Stanford researchers.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Nov 14, 2011 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (2) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

UK scientists grow super broccoli

Popeye might want to consider switching to broccoli. British scientists recently unveiled a new breed of the vegetable that experts say packs a big nutritional punch.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 3

Liver parasite lacks key genes for fatty acid synthesis: Genome sequencing of Clonorchis sinensis

The human liver fluke Clonorchis sinensis affects more than 35 million people in South East Asia and 15 million in China. Infection by this parasite causes clonorchiasis. Repeated or chronic infection can lead to serious diseas ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 24, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Long-standing plant biochemistry mystery solved

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have discovered how an enzyme "knows" where to insert a double bond ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Fatty acid

In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid often with a long unbranched aliphatic tail (chain), which is either saturated or unsaturated. Carboxylic acids as short as butyric acid (4 carbon atoms) are considered to be fatty acids, whereas fatty acids derived from natural fats and oils may be assumed to have at least eight carbon atoms, caprylic acid (octanoic acid), for example. The most abundant natural fatty acids have an even number of carbon atoms because their biosynthesis involves acetyl-CoA, a coenzyme carrying a two-carbon-atom group (see fatty acid synthesis).

Fatty acids are produced by the hydrolysis of the ester linkages in a fat or biological oil (both of which are triglycerides), with the removal of glycerol. See oleochemicals.

Fatty acids are aliphatic monocarboxylic acids derived from, or contained in esterified form in, an animal or vegetable fat, oil, or wax. Natural fatty acids commonly have a chain of four to 28 carbons (usually unbranched and even numbered), which may be saturated or unsaturated. By extension, the term is sometimes used to embrace all acyclic aliphatic carboxylic acids. This would include acetic acid, which is not usually considered a fatty acid because it is so short that the triglyceride triacetin made from it is substantially miscible with water and is thus not a lipid.

The blend of fatty acids exuded by mammalian skin, together with lactic acid and pyruvic acid, are probably as distinctive as fingerprints, and enable dogs to differentiate between various people. A team from Yale University have in 2009 developed the electronic equivalent of a dog's sense of smell.

For more information about Fatty acid, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.