Respuestas
Hi, I'm Julie from the Exploratorium. You've probably heard that washing your hands with soap and water is the most effective way of preventing the spread of coronavirus.
Now the question is, why is soap so helpful? And the answer is du to the biology and the structure of the virus itself. Now many viruses, including coronaviruses are surrounded by a membrane . And this membrane is made of layers that have a really special property. They have one side that I've represented in blue here, that likes water, it's a water-loving end, and then the other half o them dislikes water, it's a water-hating end. It likes fat a little bit more. Now this molecules assemble together so that they have actually two layers of them. One side lines up so the water's facing on this end, and the other side lines up so the water's facing o that. And basically, a ribbon of these surrounds the virus.
Now the trick to inactivating the virus is to disrupt the membrane. Soap molecules have very similar properties They have one side that likes water, and one side that's attracted to fat. That's why they're really helpful when you're washing your greasy dishes. If you can get a soap molecule into the virus membrane, it'll evporate the structure of the membrane, and that inactivates the virus. The other things that soap is handy for, is it can help us disrupt the behaviour of membranes. I have a tray of soapy water here, and a string that I've threaded through two straws.
If you wanna try this at home, we have instructions and a recipe for it in our website.
You can see that when I pull up the straws, that a film forms. This is a soap film. And this membrane has the same behaviour as the membrane around the virus. If I touch it with my dry hand, you'll see that it pops. And in fact, when the coronavirus is on a surface, all it needs to do is eventually dry out, and it will be inactivated. However, if I now wet my finger, you'll see that my wet finger does not disrupt the membrane.
You've probably heard that the virus travels in respiratory droplets. It needs these droplets of water to keep it's membranes intact.
Another thing tha you've probably heard is that if you don't have soap and water available hand sanitizers that have 60% of alcohol works.
Hi, I'm Julie drom the Exploratorium. You've probably HEARD that washing your hands with SOAP and water is the most effective way of PREVENTING the spreas of the Coronavirus. Now the question is, why is soap so HELPFUL? And the answer is due to the biology and the structure of the VIRUS itself. Now many viruses, including coronaviruses are surrounded by a MEMBRANE. The membrane is made of PROPERTIES that have a really special property.
That have one side that I've represented in blue here, that likes water, it's a water-hating end. It likes fats a little bit more. Now these molecules assemble together so that they have actually two LAYERS of them. One side lines up so the water's facing on this end, and the other side lines up so the water's facing on that. And basically, a ribbon of these surrounds the virus. Now the trick to DISRUPT this virus is to disrupt the membrane. Soap molecules have very similar PROPERTIES. They have one side that likes water, and an other side that's attracted to fat. That's why they're really helpful when you're washing your greasy dishes. If you can get a soap molecules into the virus membrane, it'll EVAPORATE the structure of the membrane, and that inactivates the virus. The other thing that soap is handy for, is it can help us INACTIVATING the behavior of membranes. I have a tray of soapy water here, and we have instructions and recipe for it on our website.
If I touch it with my WET hand, you'll see that it pops. And in fact, when the coronavirus is on a SURFACE, all it needs to do is eventually dry out, and it will inactivated. However, If I now WATER my finger, you'll see that my wet finger does not disrupt the membrane. You've probably heard that the virus travels in RESPIRATORY droplets.