Scientists are rushing to find effective treatments and vaccines for the COVID-19 infections sweeping the globe. Meanwhile, social distancing and hygiene are the best defense. Emory University chemist Bill Wuest — who researches disinfectants — recently appeared on The Weather Channel to explain how washing your hands with plain soap and water can destroy the coronavirus that causes the infections, to help minimize its spread. “There are so many unknowns about this pandemic that are driving fear and leading to irrational actions,...

As the threat from the coronavirus grows, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health officials are stressing the importance of hand-washing. Prevention becomes essential to stopping the spread of the virusbecause there is no vaccine to prevent it and no anti-virals to treat it. How can such a simple, low-tech solution make a difference? Remember—coronavirus spreads easily by droplets from breathing, coughing and sneezing. As our hands touch many surfaces, they can pick up microbes, including viruses. Then by touching...

Scientists say that even with the best and most expensive research available, a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is at least a year away. Scientists also say that the worst enemy of the virus is that cheap soap by your sink.  That’s because of simple chemistry. In soap lather, a combination of molecules assemble into bubble-like structures called micelles that trap viral matter and other biomaterials—grease, oil, dirt—and rinse them down the drain. The soaps we use contain a...

Mask-wearing has divided the country, but hand-washing—one might think—is something virtually everyone would agree on. Hand-washing, after all, is one of the most critical parts of preventing the spread of infectious disease. But many millennialshave washed their hands of bar soap, so to speak. They claim it's contaminated with germs. Instead, they use liquid soap.  So what's best—bar or liquid? Does it matter? I am a doctoral student at the University of Oregon's Institute of Molecular Biology, and here's my take, prefaced...

At the molecular level, soap breaks things apart. At the level of society, it helps hold everything together. It probably began with an accident thousands of years ago. According to one legend, rain washed the fat and ash from frequent animal sacrifices into a nearby river, where they formed a lather with a remarkable ability to clean skin and clothes. Perhaps the inspiration had a vegetal origin in the frothy solutions produced by boiling or mashing certain plants. However it...