If you've ever wanted to intimately understand just how many germs are really on your hands, please, try this at home.
Jaralee Metcalf, a behavioral specialist from Idaho, and Dayna Robertson, a special education teacher, planned an experiment to show their classes just how important it was to wash their hands thoroughly.
For the experiment, the women took five slices of bread each exposed to a different level of contaminants, and hung them in plastic baggies on the wall for the class to observe over a period of time.
The difference between each slice was insane.
The first one will make you never want to touch your computer again.
That means, if you're reading this, wash your hands NOW.
Number 2 was the control, which remained untouched by humans and computer equipment alike.
Nice and fresh!
Probably still good enough to eat.
Number 3 was touched by someone who possibly decided a sink and some soap were beneath them.
So colorful....yay?
Number 4 was hands dutifully washed with soap and water.
If you look closely, you can see the .01% of bacteria that the soap will not kill.
Whomp whomp.
And number 5, perhaps the most surprising of the bunch, shows what happens when someone who uses hand sanitizer spreads their hands all over someone else's food.
Strange how dirty hands and hand sanitizer have similar effects!
Metcalf posted on Facebook:
"As somebody who is sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired... Wash your hands!"
"Remind your kids to wash their hands! And hand sanitizer is not an alternative to washing hands!! At all!"
People's reactions to the experiment are as you'd expect, ranging from fascinated to absolutely disgusted.
@ZonePhysics Yikes!β Sharon Olivari (@Sharon Olivari)1576803720.0
@ZonePhysics Once in practical science class we were supposed to leave a culture of bacteria in a gelose in a petriβ¦ https://t.co/7HhwyLwu30β ShakeYoBooty (@ShakeYoBooty)1576804113.0
@ZonePhysics I'm doing this - I have nasty teenagers πβ Sophia (@Sophia)1576813172.0
@ZonePhysics A great (& simple) experiment. Always wash your hands.β TJW (@TJW)1576820513.0
@ZonePhysics Not only for the kids, adults tooβ Oh Long John (@Oh Long John)1576901401.0
And people have suggested implementing the experiment around all kinds of people, since adults could really use a reminder to wash their dang hands as well.
@ZonePhysics Only kids? Man I need to show it to my dad.. But he is 81. Being dirty didn't harm him I guess. π€£β Rnk_Usa (@Rnk_Usa)1576906774.0
@ZonePhysics Or don't wash your hands and have antibiotics you can save for later! #lifehackβ Roy Harris (@Roy Harris)1576803995.0
@ZonePhysics Old people never wash their hands. They hate water.β BelladonnaofSadness (@BelladonnaofSadness)1576906504.0
@DaveVescio It is not just kids. Most folks do not understand how germs work. I see parents touching their kids dirβ¦ https://t.co/XU6scqo0I6β TornFilter (@TornFilter)1576764660.0
@DaveVescio Crazy that hand sanitizer left so many germs.β Plunderhunt (@Plunderhunt)1576802570.0
Before you sit down to a wonderful holiday dinner, this is your stern reminder to wash your hands first.
Want to explore more science with your children? The Learn & Climb Science Kit for Kids with 21 Experiments is available here.