Dig into the science of how soap breaks down a coronavirus, and the effectiveness of hand sanitizer against a viral outbreak. -- Your hands, up close, are anything but smooth. With peaks and valleys, folds and rifts, there are plenty of hiding places for a virus to stick. If you then touch your face, the virus can infect you. But there are two extraordinarily simple ways you can keep that from happening: soap and water, and hand sanitizer. So which is better? Alex Rosenthal and Pall Thordarson investigate. Lesson by Alex Rosenthal and Pall Thordarson, directed by Artrake Studio. Animator's website: https://www.artrake.com/ Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/which-is-better-soap-or-hand-sanitizer-alex-rosenthal-and-pall-thordarson Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Kyanta Yap, Ricardo Rendon Cepeda, Ana Maria, Benjamin & Shannon Pinder, Ernest Chow, Bela Namyslik, Alan Froese, Anika Westburg, Nick Cozby, Shawar Khan, Michael Braun-Boghos, Rohan Gupta, Elizabeth Cruz, Yujing Jiang, Sarah Lundegaard, Vladimir Ivanchenko, Georg Gusewski, Rohit Lodha, Erica Zhuang, Aaron Henson, Julio Sabatés Rodríguez, Vivian & Gilbert Lee, Fahad Nasser Chowdhury, ரமணன், John simmons, June Reiling, Khalid AlAli, Mickey Mikeworth, Nathaniel Lupus, Yansong Li, Chung Wah Gnapp, Amber Alexander, Robert Patrick, Pi Guanghui, Barbara Younker, Ai Ejima, Soma Ali, Roman Pinchuk, Raheem, Hector Quintanilla, Leen Mshasha, Mariana Ortega, Danny Romard, James Bruening, Ricki Daniel Marbun, Malcolm Callis, Sabrina Gonzalez, Al the Scottish Wildcat, سلطان الخليفي and Alexander Walls.