1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to stot to Blow Your Mind production of My 2 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:14,600 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 3 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:17,480 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick and 4 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:20,639 Speaker 1: Robert I am ready to leather up. That's right. Uh. 5 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:23,760 Speaker 1: In this episode, we are going to be exploring un invention. 6 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:26,759 Speaker 1: Uh we're getting into a little techno history here, but 7 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:30,680 Speaker 1: we're going to be considering soap. Uh. Soap has been 8 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:34,360 Speaker 1: on everyone's mind a bit more these days, I think. Uh, 9 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:36,680 Speaker 1: this is actually a topic that was suggested to us 10 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:41,200 Speaker 1: for our our previous side show, Invention, which is now 11 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:45,560 Speaker 1: back a part of Stuff to Blow Your Mind itself. Um, 12 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 1: soap is something that is I think easy to take 13 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 1: for granted, uh, given normal situations. Right, soap is just 14 00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:55,720 Speaker 1: the thing that you uh, you know, speedily wash your 15 00:00:55,760 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: hands with, you know, add a little bit of a 16 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:00,680 Speaker 1: nice smell, take some of the grease or grit off 17 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 1: so you can move on to something else, perhaps give 18 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:04,360 Speaker 1: you a little bit of peace of mind before you 19 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: do things like prepare food or put your contacts in. 20 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:11,640 Speaker 1: But lately it is of course has been stressed how 21 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:15,880 Speaker 1: essential it is via handwashing in the prevention of the 22 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:19,160 Speaker 1: spread of COVID nineteen. All right, so let's let's talk 23 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:22,400 Speaker 1: about soap. Soap is, of course a human invention. But 24 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:25,200 Speaker 1: did we ever get by without it? I mean, it's 25 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:27,960 Speaker 1: hard for us to imagine life without soap, especially now, 26 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 1: because it aids us in the cleaning of our bodies. 27 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: It also helps us via you know, detergents, in the 28 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,319 Speaker 1: cleaning of our garments. We use uh, soaps to to 29 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,559 Speaker 1: clean you know, objects and surfaces as well. It helps 30 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: maintain basic hygiene, it prevents the spread of disease, and 31 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: it can also impart a pleasing odor. You know, what's 32 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:48,440 Speaker 1: not to love about soap? And how on earth can 33 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:51,080 Speaker 1: we get by without it? Now? Obviously we can look 34 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: to the animal world for plenty of examples, but but 35 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:58,120 Speaker 1: a few common examples do tell us a lot. Birds, 36 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:01,120 Speaker 1: for instance, clean themselves with their eeks, and they use 37 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: water or dust to bathe themselves. Uh. Cats, dogs and 38 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 1: cows are frequent examples of animals that lick themselves to 39 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:11,880 Speaker 1: clean themselves. And uh, let's consider a few terms to 40 00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:15,360 Speaker 1: put things in perspective as well. We're talking about grooming, 41 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,040 Speaker 1: which is a comfort behavior that is the practice of 42 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: cleaning the body surface including the cleaning and oiling of 43 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: feathers with the bill or of the hair with the tongue. 44 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:29,560 Speaker 1: And there are a few broad categories here. There's first 45 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:33,239 Speaker 1: of all, auto grooming, that is an animal's grooming of itself. 46 00:02:33,639 --> 00:02:36,360 Speaker 1: And you know, ultimately that's what's going on when you 47 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:38,239 Speaker 1: take a shower in the morning or in the evening 48 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: or whenever or both, you know, go go out. Uh. 49 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:44,720 Speaker 1: There's also al of grooming, which is an animals grooming 50 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:48,480 Speaker 1: of another for parental or social reasons. Yeah, and uh, 51 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 1: one thing that's very interesting is the the array of 52 00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:55,760 Speaker 1: social dynamics that seem to take place through grooming behaviors, 53 00:02:55,760 --> 00:03:00,400 Speaker 1: like say, primate grooming behaviors where primates will sometimes pick 54 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:03,679 Speaker 1: pick little knits and bits and bugs out of each 55 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:07,799 Speaker 1: other's hair as a way to to manage and mediate 56 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 1: social bonds within groups. Yeah, it becomes a part of 57 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: the society for for creatures like that and for creatures 58 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:17,520 Speaker 1: like us. So all of this amounts to a general 59 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:22,520 Speaker 1: physical removal of particles scraped away, picked away, washed away. 60 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:27,320 Speaker 1: And there may be bacteria sidal properties as well. Uh, 61 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:29,960 Speaker 1: you know, particularly you'll see something there's some studies about 62 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:33,959 Speaker 1: saliva m into what degree they may be able to 63 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 1: kill bacteria. But this, this basic removal can deal with 64 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:42,680 Speaker 1: everything from sand and dirt to dead skin cells, loose hairs, 65 00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:47,000 Speaker 1: loose feathers, and like you mentioned, actual exo parasites, and 66 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: of course in cleansing oneself, it's helpful to use nails 67 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 1: and claws and beaks and all these uh these various 68 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,840 Speaker 1: uh uh you know, bio tools that we've already mentioned. 69 00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: But in dealing with with humans, in dealing with home 70 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: sapiens and some of Homo sapiens closest kin, we of 71 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: course have to get into tool use. We get into 72 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: the techno history of the situation here. And one of 73 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:13,680 Speaker 1: the sources I was looking at for this episode was 74 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:18,400 Speaker 1: soaps from the Phoenicians to the twentieth century. A historical 75 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:23,039 Speaker 1: review by roth at All came out in they point 76 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 1: out a few key examples from quote the pre soap era, 77 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:28,920 Speaker 1: This is uh an area you might think of as 78 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,160 Speaker 1: the squeegee era, you know, where there we did have 79 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: some tools. We we probably were interested in cleaning ourselves, 80 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:37,760 Speaker 1: but we didn't have soap yet. So what can you do? 81 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:40,360 Speaker 1: Maybe you can kind of squeege your skin with a 82 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: with a little bit of abrasive action. Yeah, and indeed, uh, 83 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:49,159 Speaker 1: Neolithic people apparently used flint scrapers to clean themselves, a 84 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:53,040 Speaker 1: basic way to remove dirt, grime, dead skin cells. You know, 85 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:56,640 Speaker 1: why depend on just those those So I'm guessing horrid 86 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: fingernails that you have, uh during the Neolithic period, when 87 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,960 Speaker 1: you can also start using some some some tools. You're 88 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 1: using tools to scrape other things. You need a good 89 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:09,200 Speaker 1: scraping as well, So grab some flint and get in there. Now. 90 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:11,640 Speaker 1: I really hope that they were not using the same 91 00:05:12,279 --> 00:05:16,480 Speaker 1: hand axes, by faces or pieces of flint to process 92 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:19,679 Speaker 1: animal carcasses and then to scrape their own skin clean. 93 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:24,120 Speaker 1: But I have to guess there probably was a bit acrossover. Yeah, 94 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:28,840 Speaker 1: it seems inevitable, it doesn't it. But so the use 95 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:32,320 Speaker 1: of a kind of a bit of mechanical leverage some 96 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:36,520 Speaker 1: some scraping with a tool did not stop with Neolithic 97 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:40,120 Speaker 1: or Stone Age people. This actually did continue into classical 98 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:43,359 Speaker 1: civilizations like the Romans did something similar. Yeah, before the 99 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:45,719 Speaker 1: Age of plenty in the first centuries. See, the Greeks 100 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,400 Speaker 1: and Romans depended on well, they had vapor baths, they 101 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: had you know, an extravagant bath system for sure, but 102 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:56,320 Speaker 1: also they would scrub and scrape the skin with a 103 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:59,840 Speaker 1: st strigle or skin scraper made of bone, ivory or 104 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,320 Speaker 1: at all. And this basically what it sounds like. You 105 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: get the you get the skin itself, you know, nice 106 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:09,799 Speaker 1: and moist from a bath or perhaps via the application 107 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:12,880 Speaker 1: of an oil, and then you can start scraping away 108 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: and remove that, you know, that outer layer of grime, 109 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:19,840 Speaker 1: dead skin, etcetera. I guess some people still use something 110 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:23,600 Speaker 1: like this to cleanse themselves. I mean in terms of 111 00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: just dealing with our skin. I mean, I know, for 112 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:29,479 Speaker 1: instance that just going to the y m c A, 113 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:32,760 Speaker 1: I'll hear some of the the older gentleman in the 114 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:35,320 Speaker 1: locker room. Uh, they would talk of ways that they 115 00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:38,200 Speaker 1: would deal with the like the thickened callouses on their feet, 116 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:42,600 Speaker 1: and some of the sometimes bad advice they would give 117 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:46,480 Speaker 1: each other would involve essentially scraping away the skin, generally 118 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:49,159 Speaker 1: with with tools and implements that were not designed for 119 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:54,560 Speaker 1: that purpose. Wait, it sounds like you've got a specific 120 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:57,280 Speaker 1: tool in mind, or they like using a food processor 121 00:06:57,279 --> 00:06:59,880 Speaker 1: blade or what. Um, Well, one was definitely there was 122 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:01,560 Speaker 1: a guy that was telling me what you need to 123 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:04,960 Speaker 1: do is you need to get yourself safety raiser and 124 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,400 Speaker 1: then remove some of the safety features and then you 125 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:10,880 Speaker 1: can just you can, you know, scrape away some skin. Uh, 126 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:13,120 Speaker 1: which sounds like a bad idea, and I do not 127 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:15,720 Speaker 1: recommend anyone do that. Another person said, what you need 128 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: to do is you need to get one of these 129 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,200 Speaker 1: and he held up, um, oh, well, what's the what 130 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:22,800 Speaker 1: do you call these? It's the it's for the the 131 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:27,760 Speaker 1: grating of say ginger, for culinary purposes. A microplane. Yes, 132 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 1: a microplane. Uh. So he held a microplane and he says, 133 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:33,960 Speaker 1: you can get one of these at bed, bath and beyond. 134 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,360 Speaker 1: It works great. Again, I would not recommend using that 135 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:42,120 Speaker 1: on your body. I would recommend getting a standing or 136 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:45,920 Speaker 1: scrubbing implement that is designed for use on the skin 137 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:48,080 Speaker 1: and use on the feet. What you do is you 138 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:52,960 Speaker 1: get a stick blender and oh man, but that's not 139 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:55,800 Speaker 1: to say that that other folks weren't engaging in the 140 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:59,920 Speaker 1: use of essentially chemical approaches to the cleaning of the skin. 141 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,160 Speaker 1: In the ancient Egyptians made use of soda to clean 142 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: their skin as well as to treat diseases of the skin. Okay, 143 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,440 Speaker 1: so soda is interesting here because that suggests we're we're 144 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:13,760 Speaker 1: getting a little bit closer to soap like territories. This 145 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:16,600 Speaker 1: will make more sense when we explain soapen a bit. 146 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:20,080 Speaker 1: But but soda, of course is an alkali. It's a 147 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: it's a base, and in certain combinations, in the presence 148 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:27,400 Speaker 1: of fats and water, this can actually have a lathering 149 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:30,880 Speaker 1: soap like effect. Yeah. So, so this is a nice 150 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,440 Speaker 1: ancient example. We'll get into some more in a bit. 151 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 1: But oh, and then another example that growth at all 152 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:40,400 Speaker 1: point point out fifth century BC. During this time period, 153 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:43,920 Speaker 1: Herodotus wrote of the priest physicians of the temple of 154 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:48,760 Speaker 1: Ammon at Karnak in Egypt during the reign of Ramesses. 155 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:53,240 Speaker 1: This would have been uh eleven thirteen through ten five BC, 156 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:57,280 Speaker 1: and Herodotus stated that they would quote bathe in cold 157 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,480 Speaker 1: water twice a day and twice a night, and lensed 158 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:04,560 Speaker 1: their mouths with natron. Now, natron was a mixture of 159 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:10,760 Speaker 1: sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate. That's what you call mummy mouth. Yeah. Uh. 160 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: One of my favorite books on the history of hygiene 161 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:16,960 Speaker 1: is a book titled Clean by Virginia Smith, and that 162 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:20,439 Speaker 1: she points out that that natron was dissolved in water 163 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:24,600 Speaker 1: to clean the body, to clean clothes, furniture, and sometimes 164 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:27,520 Speaker 1: it could be ignited with incense as well. Priest would 165 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:30,040 Speaker 1: chew it and drink it as a as a cleansing 166 00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:33,320 Speaker 1: as well. So it wasn't just used in the creation 167 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:35,720 Speaker 1: of mummies. It was like, in a way, this kind 168 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:39,719 Speaker 1: of uh, this kind of posh, high status chemical for 169 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:41,840 Speaker 1: for all the you know that all your hygiene needs. 170 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:43,680 Speaker 1: In a way, it can be like you've got to 171 00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:47,080 Speaker 1: have that mummy mouth. Yeah. Now, I think one of 172 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:50,400 Speaker 1: the facts that we're getting into here with especially within 173 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:54,319 Speaker 1: with the Natron example, is that we're dealing with medicine. 174 00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:57,320 Speaker 1: We're dealing with medicinal uses. And that's one of the 175 00:09:57,360 --> 00:09:59,560 Speaker 1: amazing things is when you start looking at some of 176 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:02,600 Speaker 1: the earth the history of what we think of a soap, 177 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:08,480 Speaker 1: you're often dealing more specifically with with medical practices and 178 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:12,000 Speaker 1: sort of the magic of early medicine as opposed to 179 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 1: just sort of the like we don't think about soap 180 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:17,679 Speaker 1: as medicine, we don't think about hygiene as medicine. But 181 00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:21,920 Speaker 1: it is, I mean, it is preventative medicine. Uh, you know, 182 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:26,920 Speaker 1: you know, quite literally, yeah, totally Now, Other BC treatments 183 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:29,920 Speaker 1: included um using olive oil on the skin. I mentioned 184 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:31,760 Speaker 1: that already is something that you know it might apply 185 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:35,920 Speaker 1: before scraping. Clay and plant ashes as well. During the 186 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 1: Biblical period we see a form of soap made from 187 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:42,679 Speaker 1: plant derivatives, generally from salty regions where the plants gathered 188 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:46,520 Speaker 1: potash and soda, and the Bible actually mentions the washing 189 00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:52,760 Speaker 1: materials bore, bore, it and slig Acadian, Syrian, and Arabic 190 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:56,920 Speaker 1: languages all include words specific words for soap producing plants. 191 00:10:57,160 --> 00:10:59,559 Speaker 1: Plants that would be you know, would definitely become important 192 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:02,600 Speaker 1: later are on, if not then in the creation of 193 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:05,920 Speaker 1: these soap like elements, and plant ash and clay were 194 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:10,400 Speaker 1: also widely used in the cultures of India, Peru, Chili, 195 00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:13,120 Speaker 1: and Angola. Well, maybe this is a good place to 196 00:11:13,559 --> 00:11:16,719 Speaker 1: stop and explain how soap actually works. But should we 197 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:19,160 Speaker 1: take a break first? We should, it will be right 198 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:25,520 Speaker 1: back than alright, we're back, So it's time to talk 199 00:11:25,559 --> 00:11:30,320 Speaker 1: about how soap actually gets things clean. So in a 200 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:32,440 Speaker 1: lot of cases, of course, we all know that simply 201 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:35,640 Speaker 1: washing with water can be very effective. If you don't 202 00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:38,080 Speaker 1: have soap, you might as well wash your hands with 203 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:40,680 Speaker 1: water because that gets a lot of stuff off. Maybe 204 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:43,760 Speaker 1: not everything, but a lot, right, Yeah, yeah, I mean 205 00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:47,120 Speaker 1: it is again, it's it's often poorly understood by the 206 00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:50,120 Speaker 1: people who use it, but it's highly effective. And actually, 207 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:53,640 Speaker 1: there was a very interesting passage about what I'm about 208 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:55,720 Speaker 1: to talk about in the book Until the End of 209 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:58,400 Speaker 1: Time by Brian Green, a recent guest on Stuff to 210 00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:01,240 Speaker 1: Blow your Mind. The passage highlights the fact that water 211 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:05,000 Speaker 1: is good for washing things much for the same reason 212 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:08,520 Speaker 1: that it is the basis for life on Earth. And 213 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:10,440 Speaker 1: if if that doesn't make any sense, stick with me 214 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:12,840 Speaker 1: for a second here. So Green is talking about the 215 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:15,400 Speaker 1: chemical properties of water. He's talking about the fact that 216 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:19,720 Speaker 1: water is a polar molecule. So you've got a one 217 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:23,680 Speaker 1: atom of oxygen with two atoms of hydrogen. They're bonded together, 218 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:27,480 Speaker 1: and in this molecule there is a net negative charge 219 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:30,320 Speaker 1: at one end, the end where the oxygen atom is, 220 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:32,920 Speaker 1: and then there's a net positive charge at the other 221 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:37,160 Speaker 1: ends where the two hydrogen atoms are. And this difference 222 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:40,160 Speaker 1: in electrical charge across the length of the water molecule 223 00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:43,920 Speaker 1: is essential to its function in the world of biochemistry. 224 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:47,520 Speaker 1: It's what makes water the molecule of life in a 225 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:51,360 Speaker 1: universe of death, and so that this distribution of electrical 226 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:54,400 Speaker 1: charge across the length of the molecule means that water 227 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:58,920 Speaker 1: can dissolve almost anything, not anything, but almost anything. The 228 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:02,400 Speaker 1: oxygen end will bind to almost anything that has even 229 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:05,680 Speaker 1: a slight positive charge, and the hydrogen tips at the 230 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:08,600 Speaker 1: other end will bind to almost anything that has even 231 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:12,960 Speaker 1: a slight negative charge. And Green rights that quote in tandem, 232 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:16,160 Speaker 1: the two ends of a water molecule act like charged 233 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:20,160 Speaker 1: claws that pull apart almost anything that's submerged for a 234 00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:23,320 Speaker 1: sufficient time. So if you are if you're like a 235 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:27,200 Speaker 1: hardcore soaker when it comes to cleaning the dishes, uh, 236 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:30,080 Speaker 1: this is this is a this is a ammunition for 237 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:33,199 Speaker 1: your defense against the scrubbers. Oh of course, yeah. I 238 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:36,080 Speaker 1: mean just sitting something in water, Yeah, it will tend 239 00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:39,079 Speaker 1: to just pull things out. And it's funny, because water 240 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:42,640 Speaker 1: is the fluid of life. We we think of it 241 00:13:42,679 --> 00:13:46,240 Speaker 1: as not something that's uh, you know that rips everything 242 00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:49,560 Speaker 1: apart at the molecular level. We think of it as 243 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:53,080 Speaker 1: this you know, this this cleansing, healing kind of liquid, which, 244 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:54,880 Speaker 1: of course it is to us. We need it to 245 00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:58,360 Speaker 1: live but chemically, what it does and the reason why 246 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:00,920 Speaker 1: it's so useful to our bodies is that it has 247 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:05,199 Speaker 1: this power to dissolve, and so in dissolving things. Green 248 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:08,160 Speaker 1: gives the example of table salt, a very very common example. 249 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:12,040 Speaker 1: Table salt is known chemically as sodium chloride. Sodium chloride 250 00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:14,440 Speaker 1: is a molecule. It's made from one atom of sodium 251 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:17,880 Speaker 1: and one atom of chlorine, and when you drop crystals 252 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,280 Speaker 1: of table salt into water, the water molecules immediately start 253 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:24,800 Speaker 1: ripping them apart and dissolving them. So the oxygen in 254 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:28,280 Speaker 1: the H two O snags the positively charged sodium ions, 255 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:31,280 Speaker 1: and the hydrogen tips of the H two O molecule 256 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:35,320 Speaker 1: grabbed the negatively charged chlorine ions. But it's not just 257 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:37,960 Speaker 1: table salt. Water works this way for a huge number 258 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,520 Speaker 1: of chemicals and substances, and it's the reason water is 259 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:45,480 Speaker 1: good for washing things. Substances previously stuck to the outside 260 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:48,520 Speaker 1: of your skin or to the outside of a dish 261 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:52,120 Speaker 1: or a pan, are grabbed and dissolved by the water 262 00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:55,320 Speaker 1: and carried away when the water runs off of you 263 00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:58,400 Speaker 1: or off of the dish, onto the ground downstream in 264 00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: a river, or down the drain and here's where things 265 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:03,440 Speaker 1: get really interesting. Uh here, I just want to quote 266 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:07,720 Speaker 1: directly from Brian Green's book Until the End of Time. Quote, well, 267 00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:11,440 Speaker 1: beyond its utility and personal hygiene, water's capacity to grab 268 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:16,600 Speaker 1: hold of and ingest substances is indispensable to life. Cell 269 00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:21,080 Speaker 1: interiors or miniature chemistry labs whose workings require the rapid 270 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 1: movement of a vast collection of ingredients nutrients in, waste out, 271 00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:30,920 Speaker 1: commingling of chemicals to synthesize substances required for cellular function, 272 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:35,760 Speaker 1: and so on. Water makes this possible. Water, constituting some 273 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:41,080 Speaker 1: seventy of a cell's mass, is life's ferrying fluid. Nobel 274 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: Laureate Albert's zent Georgy summarized it eloquently. Quote water is 275 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:50,000 Speaker 1: life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no 276 00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:53,840 Speaker 1: life without water. Life could leave the ocean when it 277 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,160 Speaker 1: learned to grow a skin, a bag in which to 278 00:15:57,240 --> 00:16:00,520 Speaker 1: take the water with it. We are still living in water, 279 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:05,120 Speaker 1: having the water now inside. Oh wow, that's beautiful. Yeah, 280 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:09,520 Speaker 1: sloshy water bag creatures that we are. It's true, we're 281 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:14,040 Speaker 1: bladders of life waddling around in the desert above. But 282 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:18,240 Speaker 1: so this is amazing. It's basically the same reason that 283 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,560 Speaker 1: water is good for washing your hands and the reason 284 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:25,360 Speaker 1: that astrobiologists are looking for signs of water on Mars. 285 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:28,400 Speaker 1: But while water is an amazing solvent and good for 286 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:30,720 Speaker 1: washing all kinds of stuff off your hands, there are 287 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:34,360 Speaker 1: some cases where it's hygiene powers fall short. You of 288 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:36,680 Speaker 1: course know about this if you've ever tried to use 289 00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:40,960 Speaker 1: water alone to wash an oily, greasy substance off your 290 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:43,440 Speaker 1: hands or off of a dish in the kitchen. So 291 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:45,960 Speaker 1: so you've got a frying pans covered in you know, 292 00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:49,640 Speaker 1: residue of butter or something, and you try to run 293 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:52,360 Speaker 1: tap water over it to wash it off. Does it work? 294 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:55,800 Speaker 1: Of course not right, Like the water will maybe dislodge 295 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,760 Speaker 1: little bits of the butter residue, but mostly the oil 296 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: on the surface of the pan will continue to stick 297 00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:05,119 Speaker 1: and the water will kind of rush overtop it, or 298 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:07,320 Speaker 1: at best it will sort of push waves of the 299 00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:10,680 Speaker 1: oil around through force. Now I do use that as 300 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,040 Speaker 1: an example because I know everybody has done it. But 301 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:16,119 Speaker 1: if you remember from our fat Bergs episode, please do 302 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:18,960 Speaker 1: not wash oil and grease down the drain lest you 303 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,520 Speaker 1: begin to make a soap dragon down the sewers below us. 304 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:25,400 Speaker 1: But here's another example. I'm sure everybody will be able 305 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:29,480 Speaker 1: to identify with Robert he ever put lotion on your hands, 306 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,040 Speaker 1: like a sort of oil based or kind of greasy lotion, 307 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:34,639 Speaker 1: and then you need to wash your hands. You go 308 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:37,679 Speaker 1: and wash your hands with just water without using soap. 309 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:40,760 Speaker 1: What happens there? Oh? You just you get with these 310 00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:44,920 Speaker 1: least slippery hands. It's like, now it's like lotion plus one, 311 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:48,720 Speaker 1: right exactly, The lotion does not get washed off. You 312 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:52,000 Speaker 1: have to use soap in order to get lotion grease 313 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:54,640 Speaker 1: off of your hands, and your hands will stay greasy 314 00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:57,880 Speaker 1: no matter how much water you run over them, right, Yeah, Like, yeah, 315 00:17:58,119 --> 00:18:00,320 Speaker 1: I mean obviously there's you know, a sort amount of 316 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,000 Speaker 1: physical removal was possible. Generally, what I do is like 317 00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:05,159 Speaker 1: I I washing off my hands rel quick, and then 318 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:06,920 Speaker 1: are like, oh, I had a lotion on and now 319 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:08,439 Speaker 1: I kind of have to use like a hand towel 320 00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:13,080 Speaker 1: that to physically remove some of the lotion water mixture. Right. 321 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:17,520 Speaker 1: Uh So, water by itself fails at washing away lipids, 322 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:21,880 Speaker 1: lipids or a class of substances including oils, fats, waxes, 323 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:25,320 Speaker 1: and steroids. And this is because simply oil and water 324 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:28,320 Speaker 1: do not mix easily, which is in turn due to 325 00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:31,159 Speaker 1: the chemical properties of the two substances. So we were 326 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,280 Speaker 1: talking about how water is a polar molecule. It's got 327 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:37,960 Speaker 1: different electric charges at each end. And because of these 328 00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:40,920 Speaker 1: different electric charges at each end of the water molecule, 329 00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:45,200 Speaker 1: water links up with itself very easily through a series 330 00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:48,199 Speaker 1: of connections called hydrogen bonds. So you can kind of 331 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:50,600 Speaker 1: think of the analogy of legos. Right the top of 332 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,480 Speaker 1: one block just very easily snaps onto the bottom and 333 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:56,320 Speaker 1: the next. Now, oils, on the other hand, are made 334 00:18:56,359 --> 00:18:59,880 Speaker 1: up of non polar molecules, so they do not easily 335 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:03,240 Speaker 1: break through these bonds and link up with water molecules 336 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:06,760 Speaker 1: to form new compounds or dissolve into the water. So 337 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,200 Speaker 1: you say, say you take a jar and you put 338 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:11,680 Speaker 1: some oil and some water in the jar together, and 339 00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:15,000 Speaker 1: then you shake it up really hard. If if you 340 00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:17,800 Speaker 1: shake the jar like that, droplets of oil will be 341 00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:22,080 Speaker 1: dispersed by force throughout the water. But these molecules of 342 00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:25,680 Speaker 1: oil will after So first they will disrupt the hydrogen 343 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:28,719 Speaker 1: bonds between the water molecules. They'll get kind of dispersed throughout, 344 00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:31,359 Speaker 1: but they won't be able to form bonds with the 345 00:19:31,359 --> 00:19:36,359 Speaker 1: water themselves, and instead the disrupted water molecules I was 346 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,600 Speaker 1: reading about this, they they form a kind of molecular 347 00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:44,159 Speaker 1: cage around the oil molecules. Uh. And this cage is 348 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,119 Speaker 1: this kind of almost crystalline type structure known as a 349 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:52,240 Speaker 1: class rate. And this cage actually represents a temporary decrease 350 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:55,680 Speaker 1: in the entropy of the water. So by forming these 351 00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:59,520 Speaker 1: orderly structures around these droplets of oil suspended in the water, 352 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:03,640 Speaker 1: you are decreasing entropy. And we know that the universe 353 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:07,199 Speaker 1: does not tolerate decreases an entropy forever. The universe always 354 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:11,520 Speaker 1: wants to increase the entropy again. So gradually the mixed 355 00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:15,359 Speaker 1: mass of water and oil manages to increase its entropy 356 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:20,400 Speaker 1: by spontaneously bumping around and rearranging until the oil molecules 357 00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:24,080 Speaker 1: join up with one another into a solid mass and 358 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:27,399 Speaker 1: separate from the water to float on its surface. And 359 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:29,439 Speaker 1: of course, the reason that oil floats on top of 360 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:32,119 Speaker 1: water when it's separated is that oil is less dense 361 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,080 Speaker 1: than water. But for hygiene purposes, I guess all you 362 00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:37,720 Speaker 1: have to remember is the short version that oil doesn't 363 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:41,399 Speaker 1: naturally dissolve in water like so many other substances do. 364 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:44,000 Speaker 1: And this is why water alone is not very good 365 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:47,400 Speaker 1: at dissolving and washing away oil or fat based substances. 366 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:50,679 Speaker 1: And this, of course is where soap comes in. Here's 367 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:53,040 Speaker 1: where we all know from experience you can't get the water, 368 00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:54,760 Speaker 1: you can't get the lotion off your hands or the 369 00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:57,080 Speaker 1: grease off your hands with water alone, but if you 370 00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:00,240 Speaker 1: use some soap, it comes right off. Another example comes 371 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:02,760 Speaker 1: to mind here is of course, with our hair. I 372 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:07,720 Speaker 1: think if you've ever experimented with just rigorously shampooing versus 373 00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:11,240 Speaker 1: going no pooh as they say it, if they can't 374 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,200 Speaker 1: um that you can definitely observe this in action. Uh 375 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:17,920 Speaker 1: so I feel the oils in your hair? Yeah, Like 376 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:21,640 Speaker 1: like I will generally go no shampoo for um for 377 00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:24,160 Speaker 1: like a few weeks at a time, and I will 378 00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:27,240 Speaker 1: my hair, doesn't It varies from person to person, you know, 379 00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:29,960 Speaker 1: depending on you know your particular hair, and you know 380 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:32,520 Speaker 1: in a particular oil and how it builds up. But 381 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:34,680 Speaker 1: with my own hair, like a little bit of oil 382 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:37,760 Speaker 1: will build up in my hair, will will look tolerable 383 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:39,400 Speaker 1: and um, you know, I won't have to do much 384 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:41,240 Speaker 1: with it. But then eventually I'll come a point where 385 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,359 Speaker 1: I start feeling a little oily, and therefore I bust 386 00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:47,320 Speaker 1: out the shampoo, and when I do, all the oil 387 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:49,879 Speaker 1: is gone. And now and then I just look like 388 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,160 Speaker 1: like a troll doll. You know, I said, Now there's 389 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:54,159 Speaker 1: no oil in my hair at all, and it's just 390 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:57,359 Speaker 1: this poofy uh blonde mess. But I bring this up. 391 00:21:57,400 --> 00:21:59,600 Speaker 1: There's just an example of you know, this is a 392 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,920 Speaker 1: way to observe that water. Even a lengthy shower, a 393 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:06,880 Speaker 1: lengthy blast of of hot, steamy water is not going 394 00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:09,800 Speaker 1: to get that oil out of your hair um, even 395 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:12,200 Speaker 1: if it's just day after day, twice a day even, 396 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:16,880 Speaker 1: uh not until you add that magical soap, right, Yeah, 397 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,800 Speaker 1: the oil just does not come away in the water. 398 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:23,600 Speaker 1: So soap is made by Classically, it's made by combining 399 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:26,720 Speaker 1: a fatty acid such as an oil or an animal fat. 400 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:29,720 Speaker 1: You know, you can use like a animal tallow or 401 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:33,320 Speaker 1: something with an alkali such as you would naturally find, 402 00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:36,479 Speaker 1: say in the ashes from a wood fire, or today 403 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:40,280 Speaker 1: in a strong synthesized base like a lie uh so. 404 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:44,600 Speaker 1: At the molecular level, soap is a pin shaped molecule 405 00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:49,240 Speaker 1: that plays well with both water and lipids. Its tail 406 00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:54,440 Speaker 1: is hydrophobic, meaning it doesn't like water. It avoids water molecules, 407 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:57,760 Speaker 1: and it forms a bond with fats and oils. Meanwhile, 408 00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:01,560 Speaker 1: its head is hydrophilic, meaning likes water. It bonds with 409 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,879 Speaker 1: water easily, and it becomes suspended in a solution of 410 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:08,400 Speaker 1: water and gets washed away when the water is rinsed off. Now, 411 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,639 Speaker 1: often what happens after a good lathering is that soap 412 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:15,240 Speaker 1: molecules will form a kind of bubble structure called a 413 00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:20,200 Speaker 1: mice cell around an oily contaminant, with their hydrophobic tails 414 00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:24,080 Speaker 1: pointing inward and and and snagging onto the trapped particle, 415 00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:28,359 Speaker 1: and their hydrophilic heads pointing outward and being carried around 416 00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:31,560 Speaker 1: by the water. So you can imagine each soap molecule 417 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:35,920 Speaker 1: as a kind of a combination grasping claw at one 418 00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:39,360 Speaker 1: end and parachute on the other end. One end grabs 419 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:42,000 Speaker 1: hold of the contaminant and the other end it catches 420 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:45,359 Speaker 1: the fluid current and is easily carried away. But I 421 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:49,359 Speaker 1: should add that the hygienic properties of soap don't end there, 422 00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:53,200 Speaker 1: just at the ability to uh latch onto these lipid 423 00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,480 Speaker 1: molecules and carry them away in the flow of water. 424 00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:58,880 Speaker 1: In addition to making it easy to wash lipid based 425 00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:01,800 Speaker 1: dirt off of surfaces is like your hands. Soap is 426 00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:06,800 Speaker 1: also directly lethal to many kinds of germs, including many 427 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:10,719 Speaker 1: kinds of viruses and bacteria. A lot of viruses and bacteria, 428 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:15,840 Speaker 1: including the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID nineteen. They're protected 429 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:19,880 Speaker 1: by an outer layer that can be disrupted by soap. 430 00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:24,399 Speaker 1: The fat loving ends of soap molecules kind of jam 431 00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:28,480 Speaker 1: themselves into the lipid by layer on the outside of 432 00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,200 Speaker 1: the virus. I've seen it compared by some experts to 433 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:36,000 Speaker 1: like little chemical crowbars, just stabbing into the lipid outer 434 00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:40,200 Speaker 1: membrane of the of the virus and breaking that outer 435 00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:43,680 Speaker 1: membrane up. And essentially what this does is it disembowels 436 00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:46,080 Speaker 1: the virus, so it's guts spill out all over the 437 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:49,080 Speaker 1: place and then they get washed away harmlessly and my 438 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:52,679 Speaker 1: cells whenever you rense your hands so As an added benefit, 439 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:55,080 Speaker 1: the soap not only makes it much easier to get 440 00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: these uh, these sticky little germs off of your hands, 441 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:01,800 Speaker 1: it also just kills of germs. Not every germ is 442 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:06,280 Speaker 1: is killed by soap, but lots are, including the coronavirus yeah, 443 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:08,439 Speaker 1: I think it was. Maybe it was the growth article 444 00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:11,159 Speaker 1: that I referred to earlier. The author's pointed out that 445 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:13,159 Speaker 1: you know, we have this this this you know, this 446 00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:16,560 Speaker 1: safe mundane, this tame feeling about our soap. Soap is 447 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:21,080 Speaker 1: gentle um, but for most most organisms that we're dealing with, 448 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:24,480 Speaker 1: soap is a destroyer. It is just a a a 449 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:28,320 Speaker 1: brutal and destructive weapon. Well, yeah, you don't want to 450 00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:31,280 Speaker 1: have your your lipids dissolved, and hey, you know what, 451 00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:33,320 Speaker 1: you can actually start to feel a bit of this 452 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:37,760 Speaker 1: yourself if you say, if you have washed your hands 453 00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:40,240 Speaker 1: too much, if you've been like cooking all day or 454 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:42,760 Speaker 1: something and you're repeatedly having to wash your hands over 455 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,440 Speaker 1: and over when you go in between tasks, you may 456 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,359 Speaker 1: start to notice with with really frequent hand washing, that 457 00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:54,280 Speaker 1: the cumulative effects of soap on your skin do become abrasive. Right, Yeah, Yeah, 458 00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:56,760 Speaker 1: if you say, helped your husband kill a king or 459 00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,440 Speaker 1: something to that effect, and washing your hands a lot, yeah, 460 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:03,080 Speaker 1: you'll notice that this is starting to irritate the outer 461 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:05,920 Speaker 1: layer of my body. I mean, I think a lot 462 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:08,800 Speaker 1: of what's going on there is that is that natural 463 00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:12,120 Speaker 1: lipids in your skin oils that are a healthy. Part 464 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,720 Speaker 1: of what your skin normally does to protect itself are 465 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,760 Speaker 1: removed also when you wash your hands like that. Uh, 466 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,240 Speaker 1: And if you just keep removing all that stuff, it 467 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:22,760 Speaker 1: can kind of dry your skin out and irritate it. 468 00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:26,000 Speaker 1: But I do want to say one more thing about 469 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,880 Speaker 1: hand washing with soap, which is that I looked into 470 00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:32,720 Speaker 1: this the question of time, because we've all been told 471 00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:34,480 Speaker 1: a bunch of times. Now, you know you need to 472 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:38,440 Speaker 1: wash your hands with soap for at least twenty seconds, right, 473 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:41,200 Speaker 1: And maybe a lot of people think, ah, no, way, 474 00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:43,560 Speaker 1: you actually need to do it for twenty whole seconds, right. 475 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:46,160 Speaker 1: I mean, you just told me that that soap. Soap 476 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,479 Speaker 1: can be lethal too, lots of germs. So basically, if 477 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:51,800 Speaker 1: you get soap all over your hands, you're good, Right, 478 00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:53,359 Speaker 1: You just get the soap on there and then you 479 00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:55,680 Speaker 1: rinse it off and then you should be fine. That 480 00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:58,199 Speaker 1: that is not the case. It really does appear that 481 00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:01,760 Speaker 1: time is a factor allowing soap to do its work. 482 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,560 Speaker 1: I was looking at a couple of studies that seemed 483 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:07,080 Speaker 1: to be an agreement that longer really is better, and 484 00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:10,320 Speaker 1: the difference between twenty seconds of soapy washing and five 485 00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:13,879 Speaker 1: seconds of soapy washing is pretty huge. I love how 486 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:17,320 Speaker 1: especially early on, to really get this message across. Uh, 487 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:20,040 Speaker 1: there were all these different versions of hey, you can 488 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:23,560 Speaker 1: remember how long twenty seconds is by singing this song 489 00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:26,200 Speaker 1: or this chorus from this song. My God, so many 490 00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,480 Speaker 1: articles like this, which it's like, is it that hard 491 00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:32,240 Speaker 1: to know how long twenty seconds is? I? I know 492 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:34,960 Speaker 1: that was my my My initial thought was like, I 493 00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,160 Speaker 1: don't really need to sing the happy Birthday song. Don't 494 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:38,640 Speaker 1: know how long twenty seconds is? I can just count 495 00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:41,000 Speaker 1: to twenty. But then I realized, well, no, this is 496 00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,040 Speaker 1: this is as much about getting the message out and 497 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:46,399 Speaker 1: making the message more fun as anything, and if it 498 00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:50,160 Speaker 1: helps in that regard, then yeah, let's let's keep reminding 499 00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:53,639 Speaker 1: everybody which songs match up with twenty seconds. I like 500 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:55,840 Speaker 1: the way of doing it is like expressing it in 501 00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:59,600 Speaker 1: terms of the units of Ronnie Cox's monologue at the 502 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:02,800 Speaker 1: end of Total Recall, how many Ronnie Cox monologues do 503 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,040 Speaker 1: you need to do home in time for corn flakes? 504 00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:09,479 Speaker 1: Is a monologue? Or no, no, no, I don't know 505 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:11,560 Speaker 1: it actually, but I should time it out and then 506 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:13,520 Speaker 1: you can know, like, Okay, I need to do it 507 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:15,480 Speaker 1: one and a half times, or I just I need 508 00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:17,240 Speaker 1: to go two thirds of the way through. I haven't 509 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:20,920 Speaker 1: done the math myself, but some enterprising listener get on that. 510 00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:25,600 Speaker 1: I bet Conner's monologue from Highlander two is about twenty seconds. 511 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,560 Speaker 1: Oh okay. Most people live a full measure of life, 512 00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:32,720 Speaker 1: but most people just watch it slowly drip away. But 513 00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:34,960 Speaker 1: if you can summon it all up at one time, 514 00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:41,000 Speaker 1: in one place, you can accomplish something glorious. What was that? Maybe? Yeah, 515 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:44,800 Speaker 1: I better do it twice just to be able to say. Alright, 516 00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:47,120 Speaker 1: on that note, let's take another break. But when we 517 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,280 Speaker 1: come back, we will dive back into the history of 518 00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:54,200 Speaker 1: soap and feel around in the darkness of history for 519 00:28:54,320 --> 00:29:01,000 Speaker 1: its inventor. Alright, we're back, all right. So we're trying 520 00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:04,000 Speaker 1: to discuss now the question of who invented soap And 521 00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:05,840 Speaker 1: this is not going to be one of those cases 522 00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:09,040 Speaker 1: where it was Jonathan Soap or Elizabeth Soap working in 523 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:12,720 Speaker 1: their their home laboratory. Uh. We don't know the actual 524 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:15,880 Speaker 1: inventor of soap, but we have some very interesting clues 525 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:19,720 Speaker 1: at a more sort of civilizational or cultural level about 526 00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:23,960 Speaker 1: wind soap enter the history of humanity. Yes, now, I 527 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,120 Speaker 1: love that you've brought up the idea like the the 528 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,240 Speaker 1: handy and and just too good to be true idea 529 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 1: of William Soap having invented soap or he did soap 530 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,080 Speaker 1: having invented soap, Because the first example I want to 531 00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,480 Speaker 1: talk about here is kind of a version of that. 532 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:39,760 Speaker 1: It is it does not seem to be a true 533 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,400 Speaker 1: account of the history of soap. It is it is 534 00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,680 Speaker 1: too it is too perfect. And but it's a store 535 00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:50,200 Speaker 1: origin story that is often repeated on say, websites about soap, 536 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:52,160 Speaker 1: Like if there's a soap company and they have an 537 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,440 Speaker 1: about page, they might want to those soap facts. Yeah, 538 00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:57,960 Speaker 1: you might run across this one, and that is that 539 00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:02,440 Speaker 1: soap originates, uh, on the mountain of Sappo. Okay, tell 540 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:05,120 Speaker 1: me about Mount Sappo. Okay, that's that's Sappo s A 541 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:07,400 Speaker 1: p O. You know it sounds like soap. We're already 542 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:10,920 Speaker 1: basically there. It's the same letters rearranged. So the story 543 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:12,680 Speaker 1: here and again you may have heard it is that 544 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:17,240 Speaker 1: soap making began three thousand years ago on Mount Sappo 545 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:21,240 Speaker 1: near Rome. The ideas that animal sacrifices were made to 546 00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:25,160 Speaker 1: the gods there, and streams of melted fat and ashes 547 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:28,880 Speaker 1: dribbled and dripped from the altar, and this mixture made 548 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:32,040 Speaker 1: its way down into the to the clay ground beneath, 549 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:37,240 Speaker 1: and here washer women learned that the resulting substance animal fat, 550 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:41,400 Speaker 1: ash and some clay. It resulted in something that could 551 00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:44,640 Speaker 1: be used in the cleaning of garments. This sounds like 552 00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,920 Speaker 1: sort of like one of those like evolution explanation narratives 553 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,400 Speaker 1: that people sometimes come up with. It's not based on 554 00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:53,800 Speaker 1: any evidence at all, but it's just like, you know, 555 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,560 Speaker 1: one time there was a monkey and it and you 556 00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:58,800 Speaker 1: know it needed a rock to do this, and so 557 00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:01,720 Speaker 1: this is what happened. The stories like this are fun 558 00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:03,880 Speaker 1: to come up with because you can try to imagine 559 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:06,760 Speaker 1: what's plausible. Though I think we can interrogate the plausibility 560 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,440 Speaker 1: of this one based on things we actually know about 561 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:13,120 Speaker 1: Roman sacrifices and stuff. But but you can try to 562 00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,560 Speaker 1: come up with a story about what's plausible, even if 563 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:18,000 Speaker 1: you don't have direct evidence for it. But coming up 564 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,040 Speaker 1: with a plausible story, as we know, does not mean 565 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:22,560 Speaker 1: that you've discovered where something actually came from. And in 566 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:26,000 Speaker 1: this case, we pretty much know this story is wrong, right, Yeah, 567 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:28,800 Speaker 1: Despite the fact that it's handy, and it's it's clean. 568 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:35,000 Speaker 1: Basically a slice of false etymology here, but I guess 569 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:37,560 Speaker 1: the basically, yeah, when you start looking at the details 570 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:38,800 Speaker 1: of it, Yes, this is the sort of thing that 571 00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:42,000 Speaker 1: could have happened. Yeah, this story, as we've related it 572 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:45,600 Speaker 1: sounds plausible. But first of all, there's no mention of 573 00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,640 Speaker 1: it in classical mythology. And it's also been pointed out 574 00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:51,360 Speaker 1: that the manner of animal sacrifice that was practiced by 575 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:55,240 Speaker 1: the Romans would not have created vast amounts of soap um. 576 00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:56,640 Speaker 1: And I believe a lot of this had to do 577 00:31:56,720 --> 00:31:59,040 Speaker 1: with just like how much of the meat was actually 578 00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:01,400 Speaker 1: like how much of the the animal is actually burnt, 579 00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:04,160 Speaker 1: and how much of it was sort of taken apart 580 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,200 Speaker 1: for other uses. Right, So the chemical reasoning here would 581 00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,320 Speaker 1: be that you've got animal sacrifices, animal bodies being burned, 582 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:12,560 Speaker 1: and there's a lot of fat on them, and the 583 00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,640 Speaker 1: fat is just rendering out as the animal is being burned, 584 00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:19,000 Speaker 1: and it's pouring off into this area where there's also 585 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,240 Speaker 1: ash in the in the pit from the fire where 586 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:25,080 Speaker 1: the animals being burned. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, 587 00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:28,320 Speaker 1: soap is made generally from a combination of lipids like 588 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,920 Speaker 1: animal fats and a base like ashes. Ashes can work 589 00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:35,240 Speaker 1: for that. So you combine fats and ashes and and 590 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,680 Speaker 1: and water, and then you can basically have something like 591 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,920 Speaker 1: a crude or rudimentary soap. So you can imagine something 592 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:44,880 Speaker 1: like this happening. But one criticism I was looking at 593 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:48,240 Speaker 1: was that, uh, apparently in Roman animal sacrifices, you know, 594 00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:50,760 Speaker 1: they take off most of the usable fat. It was like, 595 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:53,600 Speaker 1: it was like if you could, if you could do 596 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:55,680 Speaker 1: something with the fat, they weren't going to burn that 597 00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:58,240 Speaker 1: on the altar. Yeah, they were. They were too practical 598 00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:02,080 Speaker 1: for that. Uh. Yeah. Basically this is an origin story, 599 00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:04,960 Speaker 1: a proposed origin story for soap. That would it say 600 00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:08,640 Speaker 1: that soap is essentially a byproduct, and I guess like 601 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:11,520 Speaker 1: basically you would need enough of that byproduct to be 602 00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:14,400 Speaker 1: produced for people to realize that it had some sort 603 00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:17,959 Speaker 1: of a useful property to it. Um Also, did we 604 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,680 Speaker 1: mention that there is no Mount Tappo that's another place. Yeah, 605 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,560 Speaker 1: there's no, there's no Mount Tappo, so we can't even 606 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,480 Speaker 1: identify it on on a map. Or again, there's no 607 00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:31,240 Speaker 1: writings about it in the ancient traditions. So it seems 608 00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:35,000 Speaker 1: that there's not much evidence to really back this up. 609 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:39,640 Speaker 1: It seems to be an altogether invented origin story, perhaps 610 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:42,600 Speaker 1: even a straight up hoax. There's another reason, though, I 611 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,000 Speaker 1: think that's a very good argument that this is not 612 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,800 Speaker 1: actually the origin of soap, which is that we've got 613 00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:50,600 Speaker 1: literary references to soap that we'll get to in just 614 00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:53,240 Speaker 1: a little bit that are actually older than this story 615 00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:57,160 Speaker 1: alleges for the for the creation of soap. Yeah, exactly, 616 00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:58,360 Speaker 1: And I think that's going to be one of the 617 00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,640 Speaker 1: key factors here. Now, I do have to say it's 618 00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:05,400 Speaker 1: it's certainly possible and within like generally within the history 619 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:10,080 Speaker 1: of of humanity that things get invented and reinvented, that 620 00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:14,160 Speaker 1: the basic chemical properties in one like medicinal concoction in 621 00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:17,600 Speaker 1: one culture. Uh, you know, that it gets reinvented somewhere else, 622 00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:21,200 Speaker 1: you know, accidentally or with some tinkering in another culture. 623 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:23,759 Speaker 1: So that sort of thing is still possible, and I 624 00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:25,359 Speaker 1: guess we have to keep that in mind. But in 625 00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:27,719 Speaker 1: terms of saying where did it come from? When was 626 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:30,879 Speaker 1: the first soap born to us? It definitely was not 627 00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:34,279 Speaker 1: born on this Mount Sappo three thousand years ago. Uh, 628 00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:39,040 Speaker 1: stuff that we can pretty accurately say is soap predates 629 00:34:39,040 --> 00:34:41,879 Speaker 1: it by quite a bit. Okay, I got a question. Yes, 630 00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:45,239 Speaker 1: we love to hear from Plenty on ancient substances. Does 631 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:47,920 Speaker 1: Plenty of the elder right at all of soap? Oh? 632 00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:50,480 Speaker 1: He certainly does. Yeah, you know, you know Plenty is 633 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:53,120 Speaker 1: going to talk about soap if it if it is 634 00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:57,080 Speaker 1: it all around. Now, he does not mention mount sappo, 635 00:34:57,239 --> 00:34:59,959 Speaker 1: which I think is another uh, you know, key fact 636 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,279 Speaker 1: to keep in mind and certainly adds to our our 637 00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:04,359 Speaker 1: heap of evidence against the idea of that being an 638 00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:07,520 Speaker 1: accurate story at all. But he does mention the word 639 00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:13,120 Speaker 1: sappo as something the Galls used in their hair. And indeed, 640 00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:15,880 Speaker 1: there is another story that you sometimes come across, and 641 00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:18,759 Speaker 1: that's the idea that, uh that that you had a 642 00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:22,959 Speaker 1: man in Gall discovering the properties of this sappo when 643 00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:26,240 Speaker 1: his hair dressing of goat oil and beech tree ash 644 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,920 Speaker 1: got soaked in a rainstorm and formed a nice frothy lad. 645 00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:33,399 Speaker 1: Now that that too, I don't know. That may be 646 00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:37,239 Speaker 1: an example that's partially invented just because it's sounds. It's fun, right, 647 00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:40,120 Speaker 1: It's like, oh, by accident, my hair treatment has turned 648 00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:43,520 Speaker 1: into soap. But but soap does seem to come from 649 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:47,520 Speaker 1: either the gall world SAPPO or from the Germanics SIPA 650 00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:51,920 Speaker 1: based on the sources I was looking at. Um, there 651 00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:54,960 Speaker 1: are a couple of authors Conkole and Rasmussen, and I'm 652 00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,680 Speaker 1: going to cite their full article, uh, just in a 653 00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:00,600 Speaker 1: little bit here. Uh. They mentioned that a soap in 654 00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:05,680 Speaker 1: particular was probably tinged with plants to dye hair, and 655 00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:09,240 Speaker 1: this was then imported to Rome because Roman women really 656 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:12,839 Speaker 1: coveted what they described as red gold coloration of the hair. 657 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:16,000 Speaker 1: So we're imagining some sort of soap like hair treatment 658 00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:19,719 Speaker 1: that that is used to impart die to human hair. 659 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:23,839 Speaker 1: And then yeah, it becomes a possible that people realize, oh, 660 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,279 Speaker 1: this actually can be used for cleaning as well. Not 661 00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:29,440 Speaker 1: to say this was the invention of soap, but this 662 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:31,560 Speaker 1: could be an example, you could. You can think of 663 00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:34,200 Speaker 1: this as an example of the sort of the reinvention 664 00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:38,160 Speaker 1: of soap or a particular substance becoming popular and it 665 00:36:38,239 --> 00:36:41,640 Speaker 1: has soap like properties that are then exploited. Additionally, the 666 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:47,000 Speaker 1: Greek physician Galen lived through either one or two sixteen 667 00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:50,480 Speaker 1: CE road of soap as well. Saying it worked as 668 00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:53,160 Speaker 1: a better detergent than soda, and then it was made 669 00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:56,520 Speaker 1: from fat mixed with lie and quicklime. And he added 670 00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:59,360 Speaker 1: that the best soap is Germanic because it is creamy 671 00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:04,160 Speaker 1: and pure, but Gals second best. Okay, here's a quote 672 00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:07,360 Speaker 1: from Galen quote. All types of soap can severely loosen 673 00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:10,520 Speaker 1: and remove all filth from the body and from clothing. 674 00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:12,880 Speaker 1: You can also dry things out in the same manner 675 00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:16,680 Speaker 1: of soda or foam of soda, and is put in caustics. 676 00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:20,319 Speaker 1: But I should add it is not entirely clear that 677 00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:24,200 Speaker 1: Gallen actually wrote this, as it could have been. We 678 00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:29,440 Speaker 1: could have actually gotten this quote via pseudo Gallenic medieval handbooks. 679 00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:34,120 Speaker 1: So so again per potentially more misinformation about where soap 680 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,120 Speaker 1: comes from. There's something about so there's something about our 681 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:41,200 Speaker 1: need to explain the origin of such an everyday substance 682 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:43,959 Speaker 1: and explain it with some sort of a novel, fun 683 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,080 Speaker 1: little story. Yeah. I wonder what's what is held in 684 00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:49,759 Speaker 1: common by the types of inventions where you know, there 685 00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:51,879 Speaker 1: are tons of inventions that we just don't know where 686 00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:55,239 Speaker 1: they came from. And some of these get all these like, uh, 687 00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:59,160 Speaker 1: these these false origin stories and others don't. What are 688 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,920 Speaker 1: the ones that get a false origin stories have in common? 689 00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:04,959 Speaker 1: Are they just the ones that maybe children are most 690 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,160 Speaker 1: likely to wonder about and ask about? Yeah, where I 691 00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:12,360 Speaker 1: was thinking, perhaps they're sort of sidebars, like soap is 692 00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,120 Speaker 1: so important, and yet at the same time, it's easy 693 00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:18,160 Speaker 1: to imagine if one were writing, like you know, people 694 00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:20,480 Speaker 1: like Plenty did, if they were just writing about, you know, 695 00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:22,640 Speaker 1: the general history and state of the world, if they 696 00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:25,759 Speaker 1: just writing about everything, you might be tempted to just 697 00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:29,080 Speaker 1: sort of speed through the soap section and be like, uh, yeah, 698 00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:32,040 Speaker 1: it sounds like it came from some some gallic hair 699 00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:35,759 Speaker 1: treatments something that effect. But but I don't know, you know, 700 00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:38,839 Speaker 1: perhaps the more has been written and said on this 701 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:44,239 Speaker 1: this aspect of of human curiosity, but whether or not 702 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:47,399 Speaker 1: that was actually a gallon that that we quoted their 703 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:50,160 Speaker 1: Other Greek writers of the time did write about soap 704 00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:53,600 Speaker 1: um and we we see this with with Roman writers 705 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:56,520 Speaker 1: as well. Uh. Plenty rights that soap is made from 706 00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:58,800 Speaker 1: the ashes of beech trees and goat fat, and that 707 00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,919 Speaker 1: there are two types dick can liquid, both kinds used 708 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:05,920 Speaker 1: in by a gramatic cultures. Plenty stated that the Phoenicians 709 00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:09,839 Speaker 1: discovered soap making in he gave the rough data six 710 00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:13,840 Speaker 1: b C. But when we actually look for the earliest 711 00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:17,919 Speaker 1: evidence of an actual soap like material, it certainly takes 712 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,960 Speaker 1: us back further than that. Okay, let's hear about it. 713 00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:24,640 Speaker 1: So basically we can go back and we can look 714 00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:28,800 Speaker 1: at Sumerian clay tablets that date back to the third 715 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:33,280 Speaker 1: millennium b C in the hit Type capital of bog Iscoy. 716 00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,080 Speaker 1: And this decided both in that paper by Roth at 717 00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:38,520 Speaker 1: all that I already mentioned, as well as his paper 718 00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:43,040 Speaker 1: by Conko and Rasmussen titled an Ancient Cleaner Soap Production 719 00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:46,440 Speaker 1: and Use in Antiquity. This was published in Chemical Technology 720 00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:49,920 Speaker 1: and Antiquity in two All right, so what is this 721 00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:52,840 Speaker 1: Sumerian clay tablets? Say? How how do we know that 722 00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:56,840 Speaker 1: it's talking about soap? It says with water, I bathed 723 00:39:56,880 --> 00:40:00,680 Speaker 1: myself with soda. I cleansed myself with soda from a 724 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:04,560 Speaker 1: shiny basin. I purified myself with pure oil from the basin. 725 00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:08,400 Speaker 1: I beautified myself with a dress of heavenly kingship. I 726 00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:12,600 Speaker 1: clothed myself. Ah, so you're getting all the elements of soap. 727 00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:16,280 Speaker 1: They're right, you're getting water, you're getting the alkali and soda, 728 00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:19,040 Speaker 1: and you're getting the oil when it says oil. So 729 00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:22,400 Speaker 1: if you combine those things together, you can get a 730 00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:25,600 Speaker 1: rudimentary form of soap. Yeah and uh and this is 731 00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:28,360 Speaker 1: from a Samerian clay cylinder found during the excavation of 732 00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:32,520 Speaker 1: the ancient city of Babylon from the R dynasty. Uh 733 00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:36,920 Speaker 1: So it is essentially sounds like a soap making process. Now, 734 00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:42,720 Speaker 1: there's also a roughly c E text concerning the washing 735 00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:46,800 Speaker 1: of wool, but according to Conchole and Rasmussen uh quote, 736 00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:49,920 Speaker 1: details concerning the identity and contents of these tablets have 737 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,000 Speaker 1: not been reported. Like in all of this, I guess 738 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:55,600 Speaker 1: you know what, we're dealing with the fact that the 739 00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:58,279 Speaker 1: history of soap is difficult to uncover. And this is 740 00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:00,719 Speaker 1: something that this worth keeping in mind. Here we're dealing 741 00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:05,839 Speaker 1: about finding written accounts of the physical soap, right because 742 00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:08,920 Speaker 1: you can't find fossil soap, right. Yeah. The authors here 743 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:11,080 Speaker 1: point out that that first of all, ancient soap is 744 00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:13,560 Speaker 1: difficult to study because it is organic and does not 745 00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:18,319 Speaker 1: leave behind direct archaeological evidence. In addition, organic residues can 746 00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:23,200 Speaker 1: simply undergo suppontification and become soap or soap like without 747 00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:27,360 Speaker 1: any human chemistry actually interfering. So instead, the best we 748 00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:29,760 Speaker 1: can hope for is a written record of it, especially 749 00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:31,960 Speaker 1: in the form of a recipe, and in that we 750 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:34,640 Speaker 1: deal with all the normal problems of looking at the 751 00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:38,360 Speaker 1: historical record to understand human history, because it's a question 752 00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:41,560 Speaker 1: of what was actually recorded, and then what was recorded 753 00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:44,040 Speaker 1: in a way that that could survive, and then what 754 00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:48,120 Speaker 1: actually did survive. Uh, you know, the point about natural 755 00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:51,279 Speaker 1: suppontification happening. This ties into something we've talked about on 756 00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:53,920 Speaker 1: the podcast a couple of times, I believe, such as 757 00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:58,480 Speaker 1: like the soap corpses. One very famous example is known 758 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:01,800 Speaker 1: as the soap lated that's housed at the Mooder Museum 759 00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:05,960 Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, which is what happens when people are buried 760 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:09,719 Speaker 1: in soil with a certain kind of soil chemistry and uh, 761 00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:12,640 Speaker 1: and the lipids, the fat layers around the outside of 762 00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:16,880 Speaker 1: their body react with the chemicals in the soil to 763 00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:20,120 Speaker 1: form a kind of in tumbment or encasement of soap 764 00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:23,560 Speaker 1: around the body as it decomposes. Yeah, so that's yeah, 765 00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:25,920 Speaker 1: that's an example there. Like nobody was making soap on 766 00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:30,040 Speaker 1: purpose there, but sometimes soap happens. Likewise, nobody's nobody's trying 767 00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:33,160 Speaker 1: to make soap in the sewers with that's right, with 768 00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:37,280 Speaker 1: the soap dragons. Yeah, yeah, because yeah, you can imagine 769 00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:39,759 Speaker 1: if potentially someone looking back and they were like, well 770 00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:42,200 Speaker 1: they created this, the aliens come and they're like, they 771 00:42:42,239 --> 00:42:46,040 Speaker 1: created this enormous system underground, and it's so purpose seemed 772 00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:50,080 Speaker 1: to be the construction of massive pieces of soap. I mean, 773 00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:52,319 Speaker 1: I guess that stuff isn't technically soap. I mean it's 774 00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:56,319 Speaker 1: it has soap like qualities, but yeah, or I don't 775 00:42:56,320 --> 00:42:58,960 Speaker 1: know is it technically soap. I don't actually remember the 776 00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:01,680 Speaker 1: answer to that question. It is soap like in some 777 00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:06,160 Speaker 1: ways at least. Now Kunkol and Rasmussen, uh. They they 778 00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:09,239 Speaker 1: do point to this, this third dynasty of or that's 779 00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:15,439 Speaker 1: account as being quote a detailed economic account of cloth manufacture, 780 00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:18,560 Speaker 1: and this is what includes a recipe for an impure 781 00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:22,360 Speaker 1: liquid soap made from oil and potash, and this is 782 00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:25,760 Speaker 1: what is generally and currently considered to be the oldest 783 00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:29,560 Speaker 1: verified record of soap making. Now they point out that 784 00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:33,200 Speaker 1: the soap is generally mentioned in connection with medical writings 785 00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:39,239 Speaker 1: in Mesopotamian cultures centering in on the diagnosis and prognosis 786 00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:42,960 Speaker 1: of illnesses and the creation of herbal remedies that usually 787 00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:47,920 Speaker 1: consist of a pharmacological ointment containing oil, plant matter, and 788 00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:52,759 Speaker 1: various other substances. So they also point to a Sumerian 789 00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:58,480 Speaker 1: pharmacological tablet from b C from Nippur that is seemingly 790 00:43:58,520 --> 00:44:01,680 Speaker 1: the oldest medical cred of soap. But it's also kind 791 00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:07,200 Speaker 1: of deconstructed soap because the quote unquote ailing oregan is 792 00:44:07,239 --> 00:44:10,839 Speaker 1: washed with a special solution, then rubbed with oil, and 793 00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:15,240 Speaker 1: then covered with plant ash. So it's kind of like, wait, wait, wait, 794 00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:19,120 Speaker 1: what's the ailing organ? Yeah, I was, I was wondering 795 00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:22,920 Speaker 1: about that too. It brought some rather um specific ideas 796 00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:26,880 Speaker 1: to mind. Apparently there's some uncertainty there, but the authors 797 00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:29,800 Speaker 1: later in the articles speculate that we're talking about hands 798 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:34,200 Speaker 1: and feet, so organ used very loosely here. That still 799 00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:36,120 Speaker 1: makes me wonder. I mean, like, I know, in some 800 00:44:36,200 --> 00:44:39,080 Speaker 1: ancient documents, like in some books of the Hebrew Bible, 801 00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:42,239 Speaker 1: I believe scholars speculate that references to the feet are 802 00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:46,520 Speaker 1: often euphemistic references to the genitals. Yeah. Well, and ultimately, hey, 803 00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:51,000 Speaker 1: the genitals need washing too, and genitals also suffer ailments, 804 00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:53,480 Speaker 1: both of the skin uh and other varieties. So I 805 00:44:53,520 --> 00:44:56,240 Speaker 1: mean it's you know, we might snicker at the idea 806 00:44:56,360 --> 00:45:00,280 Speaker 1: of um, you know, old genitals, ailing genitals being oshed 807 00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:03,560 Speaker 1: with a you know, a medical semi magical solution and 808 00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:06,799 Speaker 1: ancient uh samaria, but I mean that's part of it, 809 00:45:07,200 --> 00:45:09,759 Speaker 1: you know, in the same way that we often think 810 00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:13,719 Speaker 1: of intestinal disruptions, you know, and um, you know, diarrhea 811 00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:16,160 Speaker 1: and the like. There's there's kind of a humor to 812 00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:18,640 Speaker 1: those those ailments, at least when we're not suffering them 813 00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:21,600 Speaker 1: ourselves or when they're not too severe. But you look 814 00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:24,480 Speaker 1: at say, you know, air vedic medicine, you look at 815 00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:27,839 Speaker 1: any medical you know, old medical practice, and there's a 816 00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:31,919 Speaker 1: lot of attention given to digestive problems. I mean, that's 817 00:45:31,920 --> 00:45:34,319 Speaker 1: just that's part of being human and that's part of 818 00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:38,839 Speaker 1: our quest to to treat the ailments of humanity. Mm hmm. 819 00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:42,560 Speaker 1: Speaking of diarrhea, while soap is is great for washing 820 00:45:42,600 --> 00:45:45,560 Speaker 1: the outside of your body, do not ingest it? Oh yeah, 821 00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:48,480 Speaker 1: we we. We were reminding my son of this several 822 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:50,880 Speaker 1: months ago, maybe half a year ago now, and at 823 00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:53,280 Speaker 1: the same time he was, as he is now super 824 00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:55,960 Speaker 1: into Harry Potter, so he's into potion making. So when 825 00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:58,040 Speaker 1: we told him about this, he took this potion bottle 826 00:45:58,040 --> 00:45:59,520 Speaker 1: that he plays with the with the bat in the 827 00:45:59,520 --> 00:46:02,600 Speaker 1: bathtub and he filled it like mostly with soap, and 828 00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:11,360 Speaker 1: then he labeled it the diarrhea potion as one of 829 00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:16,560 Speaker 1: the worst potions in Snap's class. I completely flunked the 830 00:46:16,640 --> 00:46:20,759 Speaker 1: Diary of potion portion of the snape semester that the 831 00:46:20,800 --> 00:46:24,440 Speaker 1: Diary of potion is still uh in the bathroom. Um, 832 00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:26,360 Speaker 1: maybe I should take a picture of it and share 833 00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:28,719 Speaker 1: it with with people on the Stuff to Blow your 834 00:46:28,719 --> 00:46:32,520 Speaker 1: Mind discussion module on Facebook, because uh, yeah it exists, 835 00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:35,480 Speaker 1: and you know what, it probably works. Probably works. I 836 00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:40,400 Speaker 1: believe in magic, alright. So back to kun Cool and 837 00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:43,240 Speaker 1: Rasmussen here. Then they point to a few other examples 838 00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:46,160 Speaker 1: that the paper is is really good. It's worth looking at, uh, 839 00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:48,440 Speaker 1: you know, looking at say some there's a for instance, 840 00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:52,080 Speaker 1: a seventh century text of a private Akadian citizen uh 841 00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:57,000 Speaker 1: that's describing using tamarisks, date palm, pine cone, and some 842 00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:01,200 Speaker 1: unidentified plant that is referred to as uh master call 843 00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:06,480 Speaker 1: the quoting question, may the tamarisk whereof the tops grow 844 00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:10,560 Speaker 1: high cleanse me? May the date palm which faces every wind, 845 00:47:10,719 --> 00:47:14,280 Speaker 1: free me. May the mastercal plant which fills the earth 846 00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:16,799 Speaker 1: clean me. May the pine cone which is full of 847 00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:20,799 Speaker 1: seed corns free me. I carry a container with an 848 00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:24,680 Speaker 1: aqueous solution of mastercal plant to the gods of the heavens, 849 00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:28,279 Speaker 1: as I would bring forth to you for purification. So 850 00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:33,200 Speaker 1: will you cleanse me? So another kind of magical um 851 00:47:33,320 --> 00:47:36,920 Speaker 1: uh you know, intonation of the of the the substance 852 00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:40,520 Speaker 1: that has been prepared. Okay, uh So what are the authors, though, 853 00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,959 Speaker 1: make of the significance of this, like is, why would 854 00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:46,080 Speaker 1: this be a soap here? Okay? So they say, quote 855 00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:49,600 Speaker 1: the description of cleansing agents is quite interesting, and that 856 00:47:49,719 --> 00:47:52,640 Speaker 1: it contains ingredients that form the two components of soap. 857 00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:56,560 Speaker 1: The tamarisk, genus of a group of saline and alkaline 858 00:47:56,600 --> 00:48:00,600 Speaker 1: soil tolerant flowering shrubs native to raise An, Africa, could 859 00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:04,560 Speaker 1: be a potential source of alkali along with the mastacol plant. 860 00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:08,319 Speaker 1: Tamarisk is also mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, when 861 00:48:08,360 --> 00:48:12,160 Speaker 1: the goddess nin son Gilgamesh's mother bathed ceremoniously in a 862 00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:15,719 Speaker 1: bath of tamarisk and soap work. The date palm, which 863 00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:18,040 Speaker 1: contains a number of fatty acids in both the seed 864 00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:20,400 Speaker 1: and the flesh of the fruit could provide the second 865 00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:23,800 Speaker 1: component needed to produce soap. So again we're in the 866 00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:27,480 Speaker 1: zone of possible soap here. Again, the chemistry of soap 867 00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:31,200 Speaker 1: is certainly possible before that date we gave earlier in 868 00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:33,840 Speaker 1: the third millennium BC. It's just a matter of finding 869 00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:37,200 Speaker 1: hard evidence for it, hard records of it that we 870 00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:40,520 Speaker 1: can we can definitely point to um plus. You know, 871 00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:43,240 Speaker 1: it does make sense, as we've seen with the gall 872 00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:47,520 Speaker 1: origin idea, which again is much later in human history, 873 00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:50,560 Speaker 1: that the likely origin of soap might involve, you know, 874 00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:54,520 Speaker 1: an adjacent area of health hygiene, medicine or cosmetics, and 875 00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:57,040 Speaker 1: these examples, and you could well imagine it's sort of 876 00:48:57,080 --> 00:49:02,800 Speaker 1: being discovered rediscovered, uh to varying degrees across different cultures. 877 00:49:03,239 --> 00:49:06,040 Speaker 1: Uh So, I want to read just this nice closing 878 00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:09,320 Speaker 1: from conk Cool and ras Mussin quote. The slightly complicated 879 00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:12,200 Speaker 1: process of rendering the fats and oils and combining it 880 00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:15,959 Speaker 1: with alkali could not have been developed spontaneously. There must 881 00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:19,120 Speaker 1: have been a series of steps or procedures that slowly evolved, 882 00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:22,120 Speaker 1: where each step results in a process useful enough to 883 00:49:22,160 --> 00:49:25,239 Speaker 1: be adopted in its own right. One proposed sequence of 884 00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:28,360 Speaker 1: development is that people use sand or ashes to remove 885 00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:31,520 Speaker 1: the grease from skin. If they rinse the ashes off 886 00:49:31,520 --> 00:49:34,440 Speaker 1: with water, the water and their skin would become slippery, 887 00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:38,320 Speaker 1: which was because of the dissolved alkali salts. This water 888 00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:41,960 Speaker 1: would clean better because the dissolved alkali reacts with the grease, 889 00:49:42,120 --> 00:49:44,840 Speaker 1: converting it into soap. The more grease that was was 890 00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:47,799 Speaker 1: dissolved in the solution, the better it cleans because more 891 00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:51,280 Speaker 1: soap is formed. At some point the ashes were discarded 892 00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:55,080 Speaker 1: and the solution from leech dashes or concentrated alkali salts 893 00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:58,600 Speaker 1: were used. That's very plausible route of development to me. 894 00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:02,239 Speaker 1: That maybe first you just had the oil as the 895 00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:06,480 Speaker 1: contaminant itself, and then if you used ashes in the washing, 896 00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:08,680 Speaker 1: it would naturally combine with the oils that you were 897 00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:12,120 Speaker 1: trying to get off to make the soap. Uh and 898 00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:14,480 Speaker 1: that of course that would wash off much more easily 899 00:50:14,520 --> 00:50:16,920 Speaker 1: because it bonds with the water you're using to rinse. 900 00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:19,480 Speaker 1: So yeah, I can definitely see something like that, maybe 901 00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:21,920 Speaker 1: that like ashes from a fire pit or kind of 902 00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:26,160 Speaker 1: the stepping stone. Yeah, so so, yeah, this is interesting 903 00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:28,560 Speaker 1: to really sort of you know, peer back through history, 904 00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:32,279 Speaker 1: and again you don't have that wonderful aha moment where 905 00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:35,719 Speaker 1: where you suddenly have something accidentally produced. Instead, it's it's 906 00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:39,320 Speaker 1: something that develops out of these um these hygienic practices 907 00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:41,759 Speaker 1: and rituals. You know. One of the funny things that 908 00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:44,560 Speaker 1: I was just thinking about is that throughout history you 909 00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:48,080 Speaker 1: would have had all of these uh, soap making industries 910 00:50:48,560 --> 00:50:51,600 Speaker 1: that we're making use of rendered animal fats, and I 911 00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:53,880 Speaker 1: would guess that a lot of the animal fats they 912 00:50:53,880 --> 00:50:56,839 Speaker 1: were using were probably not the ones that were like 913 00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:01,360 Speaker 1: still freshest and best for I don't know, culinary uses 914 00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:04,799 Speaker 1: or other types of uses. So I can imagine that 915 00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:08,840 Speaker 1: the process of making soap throughout history might often have 916 00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:12,600 Speaker 1: been rather nasty and stinky work. You know, what you're 917 00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:15,759 Speaker 1: making is ultimately the thing that that gets the gets 918 00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:20,960 Speaker 1: the rich butts clean. Yeah, so making does, even knowing 919 00:51:21,040 --> 00:51:22,799 Speaker 1: you know a little bit more about what goes into 920 00:51:22,800 --> 00:51:27,560 Speaker 1: the into the sausages, it does have this air of 921 00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:31,080 Speaker 1: a sort of chemical nobility to it. Right today, especially 922 00:51:31,120 --> 00:51:34,280 Speaker 1: when you're dealing with with with with with crafts people, 923 00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:39,799 Speaker 1: right and soap bespoke soaps and so forth. But yeah, 924 00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:45,239 Speaker 1: which I made with rancid goat fat. Rancid goat fat 925 00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:47,400 Speaker 1: is not used in the marketing enough, you know. I 926 00:51:47,680 --> 00:51:50,640 Speaker 1: always think back to those Irish spring commercials when I 927 00:51:50,680 --> 00:51:52,279 Speaker 1: was a kid, where it's like, you know that the 928 00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:56,800 Speaker 1: manly Irish soap that is appears to just spring forth 929 00:51:56,840 --> 00:52:00,960 Speaker 1: from the earth. Uh. It's like some weird manna that 930 00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:04,360 Speaker 1: flows out of the uh you know, the mountains uh 931 00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:07,120 Speaker 1: in Ireland or something. You know. Soaps another thing we've 932 00:52:07,160 --> 00:52:11,240 Speaker 1: talked before about weird like products they get gendered marketing 933 00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:14,959 Speaker 1: and products that don't um and like, of course, soap 934 00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:17,520 Speaker 1: is one of those that's so interesting, like you know, 935 00:52:17,600 --> 00:52:20,839 Speaker 1: there's feminine soap and there's masculine soap, and like why 936 00:52:21,080 --> 00:52:23,640 Speaker 1: I don't know, Yeah, I mean, I mean obviously some 937 00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:27,359 Speaker 1: soaps are are more I guess, um, you know, more 938 00:52:27,440 --> 00:52:30,560 Speaker 1: durable than others, or more or harsher. Like I remember 939 00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:34,920 Speaker 1: my my grandfather would always wash and lather up with 940 00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:38,759 Speaker 1: lava soap, which was one that was definitely gendered, you know, 941 00:52:39,120 --> 00:52:40,840 Speaker 1: but it was it was like a workman. So I 942 00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:43,279 Speaker 1: guess they probably still make it. I'm certainly not in 943 00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:45,200 Speaker 1: the market for it, but it was a harsh and 944 00:52:45,239 --> 00:52:48,160 Speaker 1: abrasive bar of soap. It was the it was the 945 00:52:48,200 --> 00:52:52,040 Speaker 1: most masculine bar soap imaginable. This will turn you into leather, 946 00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:55,480 Speaker 1: It'll make beef jerky out of your skin. Yeah, to 947 00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:57,839 Speaker 1: just rip your skin right off. And then, of course 948 00:52:57,840 --> 00:52:59,520 Speaker 1: you see with the Irish Spring and there, I mean 949 00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:02,480 Speaker 1: there's I'm sor a plethora of different uh, you know, 950 00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:05,920 Speaker 1: masculine soaps out there. Uh. And then of course the 951 00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:07,960 Speaker 1: reverse is true as well. You have something you know 952 00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:11,440 Speaker 1: that lots of floral tones and are definitely going in 953 00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:15,040 Speaker 1: the other direction. I don't know. I'm more of the 954 00:53:15,040 --> 00:53:18,480 Speaker 1: the gender neutral soap category. I like something uh, you know, 955 00:53:18,640 --> 00:53:24,279 Speaker 1: nice uh and politely in between. So uh. Of course, 956 00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:27,800 Speaker 1: it doesn't matter whether you use masculine soap or feminine 957 00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:31,160 Speaker 1: soap or gender neutral soap. It's very important that whatever 958 00:53:31,239 --> 00:53:34,040 Speaker 1: kind of soap you use, you wash your hands. And 959 00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:36,040 Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons we wanted to do this 960 00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:40,279 Speaker 1: episode today. Robert, you discovered there's actually a Global Handwashing Day. 961 00:53:40,360 --> 00:53:42,480 Speaker 1: I didn't know about that. Yeah, this is this was 962 00:53:42,560 --> 00:53:46,080 Speaker 1: news to me. October fifte is Global hand Washing Day, 963 00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:49,640 Speaker 1: and uh. It was established by the Global Handwashing Partnership 964 00:53:49,680 --> 00:53:52,680 Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight. Uh quote. The observance aims 965 00:53:52,719 --> 00:53:55,680 Speaker 1: to increase awareness and knowledge of the benefits of handwashing 966 00:53:55,680 --> 00:53:59,279 Speaker 1: with soap. I have been going, uh yeah, certainly since 967 00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:02,920 Speaker 1: its inception, I have not noticed uh this holiday. I 968 00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:07,200 Speaker 1: have a feeling this October we might give it a 969 00:54:07,239 --> 00:54:11,800 Speaker 1: little more attention. And and certainly I do want to 970 00:54:11,840 --> 00:54:16,080 Speaker 1: stress if it's masculine so gender neutral soap, you know, 971 00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:19,719 Speaker 1: feminine soap, whatever, kids soap, grown up soap, Use something 972 00:54:19,760 --> 00:54:22,000 Speaker 1: you like. If if if it if a certain branding 973 00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:26,359 Speaker 1: or or fragrance or whatever, uh makes you like it 974 00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:28,920 Speaker 1: more or makes your your child like it more, go 975 00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:32,680 Speaker 1: for it. That's my take on it. Uh. But but yeah, 976 00:54:32,719 --> 00:54:36,319 Speaker 1: the Global Handwashing Day is coming up, and uh, I 977 00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:38,600 Speaker 1: was looking into it, and I found some wonderful stats 978 00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:43,920 Speaker 1: via the CDC about just the benefits of handwashing, specifically 979 00:54:44,120 --> 00:54:48,359 Speaker 1: the benefits of hand washing education within a given community. 980 00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:50,880 Speaker 1: They point out that it can, first of all, reduce 981 00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:53,719 Speaker 1: the number of people who get sick with diarrhea by 982 00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:58,279 Speaker 1: about twenty three to It can reduce absentee is um 983 00:54:58,520 --> 00:55:02,080 Speaker 1: due to gastro and testine illness and school children by 984 00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:05,799 Speaker 1: twenty nine to fifty seven percent it can reduce diar 985 00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:09,000 Speaker 1: real illness in people with weekend immune systems by about 986 00:55:09,040 --> 00:55:13,040 Speaker 1: fifty eight percent, and it can reduce respiratory illnesses like 987 00:55:13,239 --> 00:55:18,520 Speaker 1: colds in the general population by about sixteen to Yeah. Now, 988 00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:21,600 Speaker 1: one thing that's highlighted here is that hand washing is 989 00:55:21,600 --> 00:55:24,440 Speaker 1: going to have different levels of effectiveness with different kinds 990 00:55:24,440 --> 00:55:28,000 Speaker 1: of germs and diseases. I think one thing that we 991 00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:30,439 Speaker 1: should probably be clear about is that I want to say, 992 00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:34,480 Speaker 1: based on everything I've been reading, the primary route of transmission, 993 00:55:34,520 --> 00:55:38,040 Speaker 1: for example, of the novel coronavirus is going to be 994 00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:42,960 Speaker 1: probably through droplets dispersed directly from other people onto you. 995 00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:45,600 Speaker 1: So stuff that you would receive, you know, from people 996 00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:49,560 Speaker 1: talking or breathing, coughing, sneezing in your presence. That's the 997 00:55:49,600 --> 00:55:52,120 Speaker 1: primary route. But of course we we do think that 998 00:55:52,239 --> 00:55:56,560 Speaker 1: a strong secondary route is you know, contaminated surfaces and 999 00:55:56,560 --> 00:56:00,359 Speaker 1: and spreading through contact through the hands touching the face. Yeah, 1000 00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:03,719 Speaker 1: I mean, that's why handwashing alone is not enough. That's 1001 00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:06,560 Speaker 1: why you know, early on in the pandemic here in 1002 00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:09,080 Speaker 1: the United States, it was there was like this. There 1003 00:56:09,080 --> 00:56:11,480 Speaker 1: were a few days, maybe even a week there where 1004 00:56:11,680 --> 00:56:15,120 Speaker 1: like every business just went crazy with hand sanitizer and 1005 00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:20,279 Speaker 1: handwashing U encouragement, you know, with just handwashing stations or 1006 00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:25,000 Speaker 1: or hand sanitation of stations everywhere. But then it quickly 1007 00:56:25,040 --> 00:56:27,759 Speaker 1: became you know, off hiss that that was that's only 1008 00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:31,600 Speaker 1: the secondary transmission. Primary transmission is going to be those droplets. 1009 00:56:31,719 --> 00:56:35,520 Speaker 1: Therefore social distancing is necessary, exactly right. But of course 1010 00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:37,680 Speaker 1: you can see with many other diseases, especially a lot 1011 00:56:37,680 --> 00:56:40,120 Speaker 1: of diseases I think that affect the digestive system, like 1012 00:56:40,160 --> 00:56:44,480 Speaker 1: diarrheal diseases of a very strong component of of you know, 1013 00:56:44,600 --> 00:56:47,399 Speaker 1: contamination delivered through the hands to the mouth, all these 1014 00:56:47,400 --> 00:56:50,760 Speaker 1: fecal oral route diseases and stuff. Yeah, so even outside 1015 00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:54,239 Speaker 1: of COVID nineteen, there are plenty of fringe benefits UH 1016 00:56:54,320 --> 00:56:57,520 Speaker 1: to an additional you know it benefits to doing all 1017 00:56:57,560 --> 00:57:00,960 Speaker 1: that hand washing. I found this in resting. I imagine 1018 00:57:01,200 --> 00:57:05,480 Speaker 1: other folks heard about this as well. But Dr Anthony Focci, 1019 00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:09,399 Speaker 1: the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, UH, 1020 00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:11,920 Speaker 1: an individual everyone you know, is seeing a lot about 1021 00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:14,839 Speaker 1: a week after week. He was talking to the Wall 1022 00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:19,480 Speaker 1: Street Journals podcast about this, UH, and he said, he's 1023 00:57:19,520 --> 00:57:21,760 Speaker 1: talking about like what happens when we we sort of 1024 00:57:22,280 --> 00:57:26,120 Speaker 1: begin to emerge from our current um, you know, social 1025 00:57:26,160 --> 00:57:31,479 Speaker 1: distancing and uh and shelter in place uh requirements. He said. 1026 00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:34,840 Speaker 1: Quote when you gradually come back, you don't jump in 1027 00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:37,840 Speaker 1: with both feet. You say, what are the things you 1028 00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:40,800 Speaker 1: could still do and still approach normal? And one of 1029 00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:45,120 Speaker 1: them is absolute compulsive handwashing. The other is you don't 1030 00:57:45,200 --> 00:57:48,480 Speaker 1: shake anyone's hands. I don't think we should ever shake 1031 00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:51,600 Speaker 1: hands ever again, to be honest with you, Not only 1032 00:57:51,640 --> 00:57:54,920 Speaker 1: would it be good to prevent coronavirus disease, it would 1033 00:57:54,920 --> 00:57:59,520 Speaker 1: probably probably would decrease instances of influenza dramatically in this country. 1034 00:58:00,400 --> 00:58:02,439 Speaker 1: But how will this be received by the people who 1035 00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:06,360 Speaker 1: just love shaking hands? I say as a joke, because 1036 00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:08,479 Speaker 1: I assume nobody does. I mean, I guess some people 1037 00:58:08,520 --> 00:58:10,920 Speaker 1: actually probably do enjoy it. I mean, I don't know, 1038 00:58:11,280 --> 00:58:14,080 Speaker 1: does anybody except like the certain kinds of people who 1039 00:58:14,120 --> 00:58:17,080 Speaker 1: like to play some weird dominance game about it, does 1040 00:58:17,120 --> 00:58:20,840 Speaker 1: anybody else enjoy it? I mean, it's literally just a 1041 00:58:20,920 --> 00:58:25,200 Speaker 1: friendly greeting. Words are great, yeah and uh. And like 1042 00:58:25,240 --> 00:58:26,960 Speaker 1: I was thinking of a little bit about this myself, 1043 00:58:27,000 --> 00:58:30,640 Speaker 1: because certainly the handshakes that I remember, are like the 1044 00:58:30,680 --> 00:58:35,080 Speaker 1: big dominant like hand crushing handshakes you encounter, and also 1045 00:58:35,120 --> 00:58:38,959 Speaker 1: the awkward like dead fish handshakes. Yeah, and and even 1046 00:58:38,960 --> 00:58:41,040 Speaker 1: like a normal handshake is at least for me, kind 1047 00:58:41,040 --> 00:58:43,440 Speaker 1: of awkward. But I think part of it is like 1048 00:58:43,560 --> 00:58:45,960 Speaker 1: you think about, you know, when do you hand shake hands? 1049 00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:47,800 Speaker 1: When do you not? We tend not to shake hands 1050 00:58:48,040 --> 00:58:50,960 Speaker 1: with our closest friends and co workers, etcetera. It's like 1051 00:58:51,240 --> 00:58:54,480 Speaker 1: new people. Uh. And that's part of why I mean 1052 00:58:54,520 --> 00:58:57,480 Speaker 1: that that flows right into a Dr Fauci's advice here. 1053 00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:00,560 Speaker 1: But I guess the other thing is we're often talking 1054 00:59:00,600 --> 00:59:04,720 Speaker 1: about kind of like business handshakes and that that level 1055 00:59:04,800 --> 00:59:08,320 Speaker 1: of stranger handshake. But then there are also the sort 1056 00:59:08,320 --> 00:59:11,520 Speaker 1: of handshakes that often take place and say a communal 1057 00:59:11,600 --> 00:59:15,040 Speaker 1: church environment. So my initial response was, yes, I hate 1058 00:59:15,040 --> 00:59:17,360 Speaker 1: business handshakes, but then I had to think, well, how 1059 00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:20,080 Speaker 1: about handshakes that take plas place during the passing of 1060 00:59:20,160 --> 00:59:23,120 Speaker 1: peace in a church? And those so those are okay, 1061 00:59:23,160 --> 00:59:26,320 Speaker 1: those are nice. I like those that being said, Uh, 1062 00:59:26,480 --> 00:59:29,240 Speaker 1: I'm happy to leave those behind. Do something else instead. 1063 00:59:29,280 --> 00:59:31,400 Speaker 1: We can do the elbow bump thing, we can nod 1064 00:59:31,520 --> 00:59:33,520 Speaker 1: to each other. There are tons of things we can 1065 00:59:33,560 --> 00:59:37,280 Speaker 1: do and still have that communal experience. I want to 1066 00:59:37,280 --> 00:59:40,280 Speaker 1: see churches past the piece with a fist bump, because 1067 00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:42,160 Speaker 1: I was just looking at a study from the American 1068 00:59:42,240 --> 00:59:46,040 Speaker 1: Journal of Infection Control in ten by Sarah Miller and 1069 00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:50,400 Speaker 1: David E. Whitworth called the fist bump a more hygienic 1070 00:59:50,400 --> 00:59:55,120 Speaker 1: alternative to the handshake. They actually studied how much like 1071 00:59:55,200 --> 00:59:59,400 Speaker 1: what percentage of germs were spread by handshakes versus other 1072 00:59:59,440 --> 01:00:02,480 Speaker 1: types of g eatings, including a high five and a 1073 01:00:02,560 --> 01:00:05,720 Speaker 1: fist bump. And what they found was that quote, nearly 1074 01:00:05,920 --> 01:00:10,440 Speaker 1: twice as many bacteria were transferred during a handshake, and 1075 01:00:10,480 --> 01:00:13,360 Speaker 1: the mean here was one point to four times ten 1076 01:00:13,480 --> 01:00:18,560 Speaker 1: to the eight CFU. That's cfu means colony forming units 1077 01:00:18,560 --> 01:00:21,760 Speaker 1: compared with the high five, whereas the fist bump consistently 1078 01:00:21,800 --> 01:00:25,439 Speaker 1: gave the lowest transmission. So I think, if you must 1079 01:00:25,640 --> 01:00:31,160 Speaker 1: touch fist bump instead of handshake, especially, don't do prolonged handshakes. 1080 01:00:31,600 --> 01:00:34,920 Speaker 1: Um This is the they measured that a strong handshake 1081 01:00:35,000 --> 01:00:38,600 Speaker 1: quote or a prolonged handshake is even worse than a 1082 01:00:38,680 --> 01:00:44,000 Speaker 1: moderate handshake. So like those ridiculously long handshakes that um uh, 1083 01:00:44,040 --> 01:00:46,560 Speaker 1: they you sometimes see the US president engage in where 1084 01:00:46,600 --> 01:00:48,680 Speaker 1: like nobody's letting go, like where it's like a test 1085 01:00:48,720 --> 01:00:53,120 Speaker 1: of the test of will that's just a a natural 1086 01:00:53,200 --> 01:00:57,240 Speaker 1: way to to pass on various ailments or or like 1087 01:00:57,280 --> 01:00:59,320 Speaker 1: the ones. Uh, I think aren't there some of these 1088 01:00:59,320 --> 01:01:02,080 Speaker 1: in like action in movies like an Arnold Schwartzenigger movies 1089 01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:05,680 Speaker 1: like the beginning of Predator and Coral Weather Is they're 1090 01:01:05,720 --> 01:01:09,400 Speaker 1: just like holding hands for several minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 1091 01:01:09,440 --> 01:01:11,960 Speaker 1: it's an iconic scene and it's just so raw, the 1092 01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:14,480 Speaker 1: big muscles and all the uh. They had not a 1093 01:01:14,480 --> 01:01:17,160 Speaker 1: good idea, but they both had diarrhea for a week 1094 01:01:17,240 --> 01:01:20,680 Speaker 1: after that. Yeah, I mean probably just that was that 1095 01:01:20,840 --> 01:01:22,640 Speaker 1: they probably were already having it. They were in the 1096 01:01:23,400 --> 01:01:29,040 Speaker 1: jungle scenario right living off the land. Now, I did 1097 01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:31,240 Speaker 1: notice that they point out a difference between fist bump 1098 01:01:31,280 --> 01:01:33,560 Speaker 1: and prolonged fist bump. So it's like, I wonder, is 1099 01:01:33,600 --> 01:01:35,560 Speaker 1: a prolonged fist bump going to be more like the 1100 01:01:35,600 --> 01:01:38,959 Speaker 1: snail or some of these these uh you know, these 1101 01:01:39,040 --> 01:01:41,280 Speaker 1: variations on the fist bump or or And then then 1102 01:01:41,320 --> 01:01:43,600 Speaker 1: also where does are they blowing it up at all? 1103 01:01:43,760 --> 01:01:46,520 Speaker 1: Is that they're doing the hand garnade, so many questions 1104 01:01:46,680 --> 01:01:48,520 Speaker 1: I would I would imagine the blowing it up is 1105 01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:51,160 Speaker 1: pretty safe. I don't think any germs are transferred during 1106 01:01:51,160 --> 01:01:53,760 Speaker 1: blowing it up. Yeah, as long as it blows up quickly. 1107 01:01:54,000 --> 01:01:56,200 Speaker 1: Maybe that's the great thing about it. The blowing it 1108 01:01:56,320 --> 01:01:58,720 Speaker 1: up is a way to remind ourselves that we've got 1109 01:01:58,720 --> 01:02:00,760 Speaker 1: to keep this brief because this and grenades about to 1110 01:02:00,800 --> 01:02:07,560 Speaker 1: go off. Well, I will say my personal prejudice against 1111 01:02:07,560 --> 01:02:10,600 Speaker 1: hand shaking aside, Uh, if you're gonna be shaking hands, 1112 01:02:10,600 --> 01:02:12,400 Speaker 1: and make sure you wash your hands a lot, wash 1113 01:02:12,440 --> 01:02:15,280 Speaker 1: your hands before, wash your hands after. Yeah, And and 1114 01:02:15,600 --> 01:02:19,040 Speaker 1: use soap. Use soap, yeah, because soap again is a 1115 01:02:19,200 --> 01:02:24,000 Speaker 1: fabulous human chemical invention. It has a very long history 1116 01:02:24,000 --> 01:02:27,440 Speaker 1: of very fascinating history. Uh. So hopefully you'll all think 1117 01:02:27,440 --> 01:02:29,680 Speaker 1: of this is something you can think about during those 1118 01:02:29,800 --> 01:02:33,880 Speaker 1: uh twenty plus seconds that you wash your hands. Totally alright, 1119 01:02:33,880 --> 01:02:35,800 Speaker 1: So we're gonna go ahead and close it up there. Um. 1120 01:02:35,840 --> 01:02:38,720 Speaker 1: You know, obviously there's there's more we could have gone into, 1121 01:02:38,800 --> 01:02:41,120 Speaker 1: and you know, in terms of certainly the more recent 1122 01:02:41,200 --> 01:02:44,600 Speaker 1: history of soap, uh and and so forth. But but 1123 01:02:44,680 --> 01:02:46,960 Speaker 1: really I think that the ancient history here and just 1124 01:02:47,040 --> 01:02:50,960 Speaker 1: the basic, basic understanding of how soap works were the 1125 01:02:50,960 --> 01:02:54,360 Speaker 1: most important things to focus in on. In the meantime, 1126 01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:56,400 Speaker 1: if you want to check out other episodes of Stuff 1127 01:02:56,440 --> 01:02:59,160 Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind, head on over to stuff to 1128 01:02:59,160 --> 01:03:00,840 Speaker 1: Blow your Mind dot com. That will lead you over 1129 01:03:00,880 --> 01:03:03,000 Speaker 1: to the I heart listing for this show. But you 1130 01:03:03,040 --> 01:03:05,560 Speaker 1: can also find Stuff to Blow your Mind wherever you 1131 01:03:05,600 --> 01:03:09,000 Speaker 1: get your podcasts, wherever that happens to be. Just make 1132 01:03:09,040 --> 01:03:12,680 Speaker 1: sure you rate, review, and subscribe. At least for the 1133 01:03:12,720 --> 01:03:17,200 Speaker 1: immediate future, we're planning to continue doing invention themed episodes 1134 01:03:17,600 --> 01:03:19,800 Speaker 1: on a periodic basis, So I don't think that's gonna 1135 01:03:19,840 --> 01:03:22,640 Speaker 1: be No, it's not gonna be weekly, but you know 1136 01:03:22,680 --> 01:03:24,760 Speaker 1: it's I think it's gonna at least be monthly. That's 1137 01:03:24,800 --> 01:03:28,240 Speaker 1: my my gut. There's no real, uh, you know, firm 1138 01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:31,160 Speaker 1: schedule in place on that. But we love covering inventions, 1139 01:03:31,160 --> 01:03:34,480 Speaker 1: we love covering human techno history, so we will continue 1140 01:03:34,520 --> 01:03:36,520 Speaker 1: to do so. We'll do when we feel like it, 1141 01:03:36,600 --> 01:03:40,000 Speaker 1: and we feel like it an awful lot, I'd say, yeah, anyway, 1142 01:03:40,120 --> 01:03:44,240 Speaker 1: huge thanks to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. 1143 01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:45,920 Speaker 1: If you would like to get in touch with us 1144 01:03:45,920 --> 01:03:48,560 Speaker 1: with feedback on this episode or any other. To suggest 1145 01:03:48,560 --> 01:03:50,920 Speaker 1: a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 1146 01:03:51,040 --> 01:03:54,520 Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 1147 01:03:54,560 --> 01:04:05,040 Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is 1148 01:04:05,080 --> 01:04:07,760 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my 1149 01:04:07,800 --> 01:04:10,760 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 1150 01:04:10,840 --> 01:04:24,480 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.