Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes

by Nathan H. Lents

and other animals have lost the ability to synthesize. Two other examples come from a group of molecules called fatty acids. These long hydrocarbons are the building blocks for fats and other lipids that the body needs, such as phospholipids, which help form the membranes that surround every single cell. It is hard to think of a more essential structure than the cell membrane. Yet one of the two fatty acids that we cannot produce (both of which have tongue-twister names) is linoleic acid, which forms part of the cell membrane. The other one, alpha-linolenic acid, is used to help regulate inflammation, another hugely important internal process.

Mitochondrial disorders