How does soap get rid of germs?

Rinse your hands with water alone and they look clean. But in one experiment, traces of bacteria from poop stayed on nearly one in four hands rinsed with water, and on about one in twelve washed with plain soap. What is that small bar actually doing? We zoom a million times closer, down to your skin: the two-faced soap molecule, how micelles carry oil and germs away, why soap literally takes apart viruses with a fatty envelope while it mostly just unsticks bacteria, why twenty seconds matters, whether hot water helps, if you need antibacterial soap, bar versus liquid, and when alcohol gel is the better choice. Single-study numbers are labelled as such; plain soap mostly removes bacteria rather than killing them. Tell us in the comments which everyday thing we should take apart next. #Soap #Science #Handwashing