crimefighterplatypus
crimefighterplatypus t1_jd62mmk wrote
Reply to TIL hair smells bad when burned because keratin needs large amounts of the sulfur-containing amino acid cysteine for polymer crosslinking, which give it it's rigid properties by Fantastic-Berry-737
Loool I learned this fun fact from reading ingredient labels! I actually found out that human hair contains L-cysteine. It is also found in bird feathers and horse hooves. L-cysteine is a dough conditioner that can be used to make breads softer. Some breads use asorbic acid but others use cysteine. One day I looked up cysteine and learned what you posted lol
crimefighterplatypus t1_jd638i0 wrote
Reply to comment by Sensitive-Hold-8196 in TIL hair smells bad when burned because keratin needs large amounts of the sulfur-containing amino acid cysteine for polymer crosslinking, which give it it's rigid properties by Fantastic-Berry-737
Amino acid is a building block to make a protein. Imagine a single amino acid as a bead, and a protein has many beads strung together. Cysteine is one of those “beads”, use to make a part of a protein, called the polymer. Imagine you took a bunch of strings with beads and tied them together to make a large necklace, thats the entire protein. In this case that protein is keratin. Cysteine is also found in bird feathers and horse hooves