A fatty substance found in brain tissue, historically thought to be important for brain function and development.
From Latin cerebrum (brain) + the chemical suffix -in. Coined in 19th-century biochemistry when scientists were isolating organic compounds from tissues and naming them after their sources.
Early chemists got excited discovering cerebrin and thought they'd found the chemical secret to intelligence, but it turned out to be just one of thousands of brain lipids—a reminder that complexity can't be reduced to a single wonder molecule.
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