As I understand it, cell membranes in humans are composed of a phospholipid bilayer, with the individual phospholipids having a polar head and a nonpolar tail, arranged tail-to-tail in essentially mirror images of each other. And I know that water molecules are polar, while oil is nonpolar, which is why oil clumps together in water. Now, in order to wash oil off of dirty dishes for example, soap is used. Soap is used for the same reason it has been used for thousands of years to clean the human body: it acts as a sort of liaison between oil and water, since individual soap molecules (saponified oils, really, in other words lipids) have a polar head and a nonpolar tail. Due to this structure, the polar heads bond with water, while the nonpolar tails bond with oil, and as the soap washes away it carries the oils with it; effectively allowing oil and water to mix by being a bridge between them.
But if soap molecules have the same structure as the phospholipids in the cell membrane, does that mean cell membranes can be accurately said to be made of soap?
But if soap molecules have the same structure as the phospholipids in the cell membrane, does that mean cell membranes can be accurately said to be made of soap?