On Wednesday, former NASA engineer and YouTuber Mark Rober released a video on germs.
In the video, Rober runs several experiments in a third grade classroom using a powder and lotion that glow under a black light in order to demonstrate how germs are spread, the ways we fail when washing our hands, and how touching your face is a difficult habit to break.
“I found this powder called Glo Germ, and just like real germs, when it’s on your hands, you can’t see it, but unlike real germs, if you turn a black light on, it becomes visible,” Rober states. “But it transfers to things you touch, so it provides a really good way to visualize exactly how germs spread.”
Rober first examines the classroom with a black light to spot any surfaces where there might be fluorescence. Then the game is on. The YouTuber applies Glo Germ powder to the teacher’s hands, who then shakes the hands of three random students. Rober also applies the powder to one student’s hands during recess.
At lunch, Rober checks out the surfaces in the classroom. They are covered – desks, doorknobs, bins, and student hands show large amounts or traces of powered. Rober even notes that the kids were “pretty diligent about washing their hands.” Even so, the Glo Germ was everywhere.
“What’s crazy is that germs could live on a hard surface like this for up to nine days,” Rober says.
The YouTuber then speaks about how phones are loaded with germs, and that washing your hands has little impact if after washing, you immediately grab your phone that hasn’t been sanitized.
“Think about when the last time was that you cleaned your phone,” he states.
Rober’s experiment, he hopes, will demonstrate the importance of washing your hands and using hand sanitizer after touching elevator buttons, holding onto railings, pumping gas, etc.
Rober then talks about face-touching.
“The ultimate defense against catching a virus is just don’t touch your face,” Rober notes. “Your eyes, nose, and mouth are like the single weak spot on the Death Star when it comes to viruses.”
Multiple photos are shown of the third-graders touching their faces – but it wasn’t just the students who were habitual face-touchers. Under the black light, the teacher had numerous glowing smears across her face despite trying her best to avoid face-touching.
Rober decides to try the face-touching experiment on himself, applying the Glo Germ powder to his own hands. Several hours later, the black light shows that even he, with the full understanding that touching his face would transfer the powder, had multiple markings from unconsciously touching his face.
“On average, we touch our face 16 times and hour, which is why washing hands is so important,” Rober says.
In Rober’s last experiment, he has the third-graders apply glowing hand lotion, then wash their hands. After they all wash, Rober examines their hands, and finds weak spots – wrists, fingernails, etc.
As to how this all relates to coronavirus, Rober says that the idea is to “flatten the curve” so we don’t overwhelm our health care system, and that social distancing is key in the fight against the virus.
“I’m a practical optimist,” Rober says. “The upside is while this virus is bad, it could be way worse, and this gives us a chance as a global community to get some systems and methods in place to handle something potentially even more drastic in the future.”
Rober concludes by noting that perhaps some social norms will change as a result of this virus, and that the impact of this pandemic may help lower future deaths related to the seasonal flu, which kills up to half a million people annually “due in large part to people not practicing good germ hygiene.”
There’s more to this excellent video that wasn’t included here, so check it out below: