Soap, our first line of defense against harmful germs, actually hasn’t changed much in thousands of years. What may surprise you, though, is that a lot of what we call “soap” today isn’t soap at all. The basic ingredients for soap are a fat or oil; water; and a basic,...
A Tribute to Soap
The history of soap dates back to Ancient Babylon. (A medical document from about 1500 BC describes combining animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to form a soap-like material used for treating skin diseases, as well as for washing!) For thousands of years, technologies have evolved to create the soaps...