Before telling you why soap is so important in our fight against coronavirus (and viruses in general), let me first introduce a friend to you. Its name is sodium stearate and it is the most common soap. It has hundres of close cousins that we use as soaps, but we will focus on it for this explanation.

But why is this important? Well, it is actually the key of everything. On the one hand, the head LOVES water and it is very attracted to it. On the other hand, the body HATES water, so it tries to be as far as it can from it. Due to this bipolar nature, soap molecules always try to positions themselves in a very special way where all the heads are close to each other and so are the bodies between them. This special way of organizing in the space, called micelle, is very similar to the way that our cells membranes and viruses are createdto the way that our cells membranes and viruses are created. And also to the way that viruses are created.

This similarity between the membrane in viruses and soap is the main reason why soap can dissolve them. It is acting like a bridge between the particles forming the membrane and the surrounding water, favouring the interaction between them and the solvation of the virus. Once this interaction happens, many soap molecules start to introduce their bodies deeper in the virus membrane and destabilizing it. Eventually, some parts of the membrane will separate from the main body and will be surrounded by soap molecules, encapsulating them. This will be like a chain reaction in which the more particles are separated, the easier and faster the rest will be dissolved too. And once the membrane is disintegrated and the DNA released in the water, the virus is completely destroyed and the result is loads of different virus building blocks encapsulated in soap micelles floating all over the solution.

As you can imagine this process is not as simple as explained here, the virus membrane is not only built by one type of molecule and different virus will have different structures and types of molecules. But the idea you have to take from here is that soap is very important for preventing the spread of COVID-19, and now you know why. It is now your duty to help curbing COVID-19 advance and spread knowledge. Share this with your friends and family, explain to them why soap is so important and tell them about your new superpower of destroying virus by using only science and soap.

Future is on your (WASHED) hands.

If you want to go back to the simulation click on the first stage button. If you prefer to go and see different molecules with funny names, shapes or importance in 3D, click on the second button.

• Stage 1
• 3D molecules