"bakit sabon?"

"Eh kasi surfac---" I hesitated to answer when my brother asked kung bakit daw sabon yung binubuhos sa dagat sa oil spill sa Romblon ngayon. I hesitated not because I don't think he's familiar with the term, but because I know this term yet I am not sure. Soap is a surfactant. It is a substance which is amphiphilic (according to our Chemistry professors and wikipedia). Ampiphilic meaning it has both a hydrophobic (water-hating?) tail and hydrophilic (water loving) head. So to cut this whole feeling geeky mode short, Soap can be used to remove sebo on our dishes and kalderos because the hydrophobic end which is soluble in organic substances (thanks again wikipedia) attaches to oil while the hydrophilic head attaches to water. When you wash the oil covered plates and utensils the oil which is holding on to the tail of the surfactant gets washed off since naka attach sila sa tubig. gets? 

This is probably one of the lessons that I loved when I took up chemistry back in first year college. 

this one's already a micelle which is just a bunch of surfactants put together and said "let's volt in!"

It's sort of like this catdog situation. Imagine the cat bites on imaginarily at the oil while the dog bites on to the water. When the water drains down into the sink, it will take the oil with it thanks to the catdog err surfactant i mean, a.k.a. the soap. odiba?

Same thing with the recent Romblon retrieval operations. They were using soap to wash of the oil at the sea, which may still be a bad idea though. The detergent will only likely to worsen the problem since it's not good for the fishes and corals as well. 

OH WELL...

MV Princess of the Stars ship upside down in Romblon. This ship gives me the creeps.

Anyway, I'm glad I've finally cleared some of the million questions in my head. This is good. I'm starting to get back on school mode. When this term gets asked in the Board exams next year, I would probably remember this entry and smile.