When Architecture Fails

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a chemical reason you can’t build a membrane out of saturated fat. I want to walk through that chemistry, because it explains something important about why essential fatty acids are essential—and what happens when they’re missing.

Saturated fatty acids are chemically complete. Every carbon is bonded to its maximum number of hydrogens. No double bonds. No kinks. No electron-rich regions. They’re inert hydrocarbon chains that stack together like logs—stable, energetically dense, and utterly uninteresting from an architectural standpoint.

Essential Fatty Acids on Edward J. Edmonds

When Architecture Fails