Trans-Forming Fats (or Simply Called

Trans-forming fats (or simply called trans fats) contain a specific kind of unsaturated fatty acid. Essentially, when there is a double bond between carbon atoms, the molecule bends in one of two different ways: the cis or the trans direction (230). Trans fats can be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated, but they can never be saturated because of the configuration of a double carbon-carbon bond. Trans fats are created when oils are hydrogenated. The compounds that are created, making trans fatty acids, are unnatural and they can be detrimental to a person's health.

A natural unsaturated fatty acid has several double bonds between adjacent carbon atoms, and this is what makes it unsaturated. Saturated fats don't have double bonds and hydrogen atoms take up the spaces between. When the oil is hydrogenated, the hydrogen atoms can't be controlled when they are added to the structure. A cis fat occurs when hydrogen atoms are added to the same side of the structure. These fats occur naturally. But if one hydrogen atom adds to one side of the structure and the other atom goes to the other side, this creates a trans fat. Unlike the cis fats where atoms are on one side of the molecule, allowing them to bend, and allowing other chemicals and enzymes to bind to them, the trans fats do not allow other molecules and enzymes to bind to them.

Hydrogenated vegetable fats where most dietary trans fat are found are common in the food industry. Examples of where trans fat are found include: margarine, many foots marketed to children, potato chips, ice cream, and vegetable shortening. They are also found in the majority of "fast" food.

"Buckyballs" are the roundest and most symmetrical large molecule that is known. They are geodesic domes with the same essential symmetry -- C60 the third major form of pure carbon and graphite and diamond the other two. Buckyballs can come in any sizes and other atoms can often get trapped inside them. Chemists at Yale University, in fact, managed to trap helium and neon inside buckyballs and it was the first time chemists ever observed helium and neon inside a compound of any kind (232). Buckyballs can be manufactured as well to fit a certain size requirement (232).

In "Strong enough to stop a bullet," liquid crystals are the topic of discussion. They are in use everywhere in our daily life -- from color-changing pens, calculators, televisions, and bulletproof vests (238). Liquid crystals can make ultra strong synthetic fibers when the nematic molecules are lain parallel to one another. The best example of how this works is in the example Kevlar, a synthetic fiber used in the bulletproof vest (238). Kevlar is a synthetic polymer, like nylon or polyester and it gains strength by passing through a liquid crystal state when it is being manufactured (238).