The Magic of Soap
- Regina R.
- Jun 21, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 24, 2020
By: Regina, Website Developer
Soap, honestly, is neglected. Low cost, high quality. People don't take it as seriously as it should. But, why should they? It's just soap. Oh, no, it is so much more than that.
Soap. An overlooked, but increasingly important substance. It is used for washing hands, dishes, pets, and almost every object you can think of. Since we were little, we were constantly reminded to wash our hands with soap, because soap somehow made everything cleaner. And for many years, we accepted it without question. But why are we so sure that soap will get all that filth off our hands?
How Soap Works
Our hands contain natural oils, and germs often mix in with them. And since water and oil don’t mix, simply washing your hands with water doesn’t get rid of the pathogens. Luckily, thousands of years ago, humankind discovered a wondrous substance very similar to our soap today. They found that it was much better at cleaning than regular water was. Soap is made from fat or oil, so it has a distinct shape that has a polar, salty head and a nonpolar, fatty tail. The soap’s fatty tail faces the grime and the salty head towards the water. But it isn’t just one soap molecule that does the job, it is dozens of different ones. With all of their tails facing the dirt and their heads towards the water, they form a circular structure called a micelle. The micelle then sweeps the dirt away, one particle at a time.
Soap doesn’t actually destroy the microbes, it just removes them. But, it is important to keep in mind that not all germs are bad - some are benign, and others can actually help us live. Still, there are harmful germs. These germs can cause terrible diseases like the flu and the common cold. Thanks to advances in medicine, our bodies can fight these illnesses off by themselves or with the help of vaccines. Yet, during certain times, like the Covid-19 pandemic, our bodies may not recognize the disease, and it will not be able to produce certain antibodies to fight that disease. Vaccines are nowhere in sight, either. While soap may not be able to guarantee immunity, it does help significantly. So, thank you, to those tiny micelles.
"The micelle then sweeps the dirt away, one particle at a time"
Soap Changed Us
Before cleanliness became the norm, many people fell prey to preventable diseases. Handwashing, or washing in general, was a solution to that. We now have many varieties of soaps: liquid soap, block soap, hand soap, dishwashing soap, just to name a few. Due to that, we are able to stay “clean”. (The word “clean” means something different to everyone.)
The Power of Soap
While soap may not fix all your cleaning problems, it tackles them pretty well. The coronavirus pandemic has made sanitation essential, especially since there is no way of knowing if our bodies can fight the virus. Cleanliness then becomes a matter of life or death. Even if you do everything you need to do to protect yourself - wear masks, social distance, wash your hands - it may not be enough. Viruses live on the most unsuspecting surfaces, like doorknobs. People who are not infected with the virus can come into contact with people who are. While just coming close to an infected person may not spread the virus, shaking hands, hugging, and sneezing will. While there really isn’t much you can do after an infected person sneezes on you, you can, at least wash your hands with soap after touching a possibly infected person.
Viruses can have many homes, but their favorite is human skin. The virus sneaks into a cell and puts a copy of their RNA, its genetic material, into the cell’s, tricking it into making copies of the virus. Eventually, there will be so many copies of the virus that the cell bursts, releasing the virus into other cells. If the virus ends up invading the lungs, it can be deadly for the person.
Luckily, soap can destroy the active virus in a similar way to how it removes dirt. Viruses give a fight, but they are no match for the mighty soap and water team. Still, you have to wash properly. Scrub as long as it takes to sing the alphabet twice. Get those spots underneath your fingernails and in between your fingers. Even if we take all the precautions, there is no guarantee you will be disease-free. But we can try.
Soap is not perfect, but it is pretty close to it. In the end, we all have to appreciate the bubbly magic of soap.
Sources
Hickok, Kimberly. “Why do we use soap?” Live Science, Future US, Inc., 5 March 2020,
Kallen, Laura Edison. “How Does Soap Actually Work?” DefeatDD, n.p., 28 August 2019,
Thordarson, Palli. “The coronavirus is no match for plain old soap - here’s the science behind
it.”MarketWatch, MarketWatch, Inc., 8 April 2020, www.marketwatch.com/story/deadly-
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