Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Free Radicals

I always think of the movie Never Say Never Again when I hear the term "free radical." It's after M has decided to send Bond off to the health spa, and Bond tells Miss Moneypenny his new mission is to "eliminate all free radicals." She's very concerned and impressed when she says "Do be careful."

The Food section of yesterday's Post has a great non-technical explaination of what free radicals and antioxidants are. For example:

Electrons, not unlike humans, strongly prefer to snuggle together in pairs. So the unpaired electron in a free radical makes the molecule very needy and unstable. At the slightest opportunity, it will snatch an electron from one of the pairs in a nearby molecule, like a predatory bachelor breaking up a marriage.