To maintain an optimum dynamic range, membranes of living systems must have the ability to regulate their translational and vibrational motion in the face of environmental changes that might offset them. This is done through structural modifications of the lipids. Sarcina ventriculi was used as a case study to explore membrane structural reorganizations which allow some organisms to adapt to extreme environmental changes. It is capable of a variety of unusual and dramatic chemical processes including lipid alkyl chain tail-to-tail and lipid head-to-head coupling. There is also interlipid headgroup transfer or shuffling. The tail-to-tail coupling activity is capable of joining foreign (exogenously added) hydrocarbon chains to the native chains. The adaptative processes occur dynamically and instantaneously and render this organism tolerant to low and high pH, moderately high temperatures, the presence of organic solvents, and a wide spectrum of antibiotics at concentrations as high as 200 mu g/mL. Chemical analyses indicate that the membrane of Sarcina ventriculi exists in a dynamic equilibrium somewhere between a bilayer and cross-linked bipolar monolayer. Based on the degree of cross-linking of both the alkyl chains and the headgroups, under more extreme conditions, the membranes should approach highly cross-linked, two-dimensional molecular sheets. These structural reorganizations parallel the same strategies used by organic chemists in their effort to synthesize stabilized monolayers and vesicles. Catalytic activities present in the membranes of this and similar organisms hold much potential for use in stabilizing supramolecular arrays and nano structures.