Brooklyn College
City University of New York

Science at a Distance

topic

Biological Energy

This Bio-Module requires the use of the text book "Exploring Life" by Professor John Blamire.

The Words of Science

cholesterol

A steroid alcohol molecule that is an essential part of all animal cell membranes; also found in bile, blood and animal adipose tissue.
From the Greek words chole, meaning gall, and stear, meaning a hard fat.

This substance was discovered as a hard, white, fatty deposit in gallstones by Poulletier de la Salle in 1769. Michel Chevreul decided that it could be a type of fat, in 1815, and gave it the name cholesterine,. The presence of hydroxyl groups on the molecule was reasonably certain by 1859, but the name was not changed to it current form until 1900.

Words of Science