Like lots of people, I’m stuck at home self-quarantining to stop the spread of the novel corona virus. And since I can’t get into a studio, I figured I’d do an experiment here at home. This powder is a common teaching aid that sticks to your skin and other surfaces, and it glows under UV light. You’ve probably seen it in a lot of other videos.

It’ll demonstrate what we normally can’t see, the movement of viruses like this one. The corona virus has a highly effective technique for jumping from person to person, surfaces, you name it, but it’s also vulnerable to some pretty basic cleaning regiments. So let’s see how easily it spreads and what you can do about it.

The process that spreads the corona virus starts in the lungs and the throat. – So they sort of fool the cell and then your cell mistake it as something useful. And then they’ll basically hijack the cell for the purpose of the spread of the virus. – Hong Zhou is a microbiologist at UCLA. He says, basically, the corona virus enters a cell and multiplies, sometimes millions of times.

All of those copies then spill out into patients’ airways, and some of those copies end up in tiny droplets of fluid. Then, when the patient coughs or sneezes, those droplets spray out onto tabletops and railings, bus seats, food, other people, you name it. And each droplet can carry a heavy load. – So you can do this calculation. You can see that it could easily fit thousands of virus particle each droplet. Of course, you only need one. You only need one virus to get infected.

One really big way to break the chain of transmission is hand washing. Let’s say I’ve been out and about all day and I haven’t been really careful about where my hands have been. I get home, I put my stuff away, I pet the dog, I relax. But you know what else I do a lot? I touch my face. – You seem to infect yourselves either through your mouth, through your eyes, your nose. So that’s why it’s so important you don’t touch your face.

So you should try touching your face less, but washing your hands makes those slip-ups less dangerous. You’ve heard the recommendation before, 20 seconds of thorough scrubbing with soap, because soap, as it turns out, is a pretty magical substance. It contains detergent molecules that surround and pull apart fats, or lipids, and lipids are partly what corona virus membranes are made of. So when detergent molecules meet a virus they force its membrane open, tearing it apart and rendering it inactive.

Experts also recommend cleaning frequently used surfaces, or at least studies show that corona virus can life on surfaces for days. So remember my getting home routine? Everything from my light switches to my door to my keyboard, my game controllers. Even my dog glowed under the UV light. Luckily, plenty of bleaches and other household cleaners also destroy the virus particles in their own way.

Just don’t use those cleaners on your dog. The EPA has a list of cleaners that will help, and we’ve got them linked in the description below. To be clear, researchers still have a lot to learn about this virus, but what we just demonstrated are best practices for lots of diseases. So keep up to date on the news, because we’re going to be learning more and more each day.

Lastly, follow the guidance that applies to you for social distancing. It’s how we got into this situation in the first place. I mean, all these things started with a single virus, in the entire world. So we need to cut the chain of spreading. So small things we do can help a lot.

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