FREE RADICALS.
Radicals (often referred to as free radicals) are atoms, molecules, or ions with unpaired electrons on an open shell configuration. Free radicals may have positive, negative, or zero charge. With some exceptions, the unpaired electrons cause radicals to be highly chemically reactive. Radicals, if allowed to run free in the body, are believed to be involved in degenerative diseases, senescence and cancers.
Free radicals play an important role in combustion, atmospheric chemistry, polymerization, plasma chemistry, biochemistry, and many other chemical processes. In chemical biology, superoxide and nitric oxide regulate many processes, such as controlling vascular tone. Such radicals can even be messengers in a phenomenon dubbed redox signaling. A radical may be trapped within a solvent cage or be otherwise bound.
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