Question: why does your skin turn soft after been in the bath for a long time

Emma Ross answered on 24 Jun 2013:

We all have a layer of dead skin cells on the surface of our skin, and these absorb water much more easily than normal skin cells. As a result, when we stay in the bath for a long time, the swelling of these dead skins cells gives our skin a wrinkly appearance. An interesting fact is that scientist think that wrinkly skin may have helped our hunter-gatherer ancestors – the wrinkled skin gives a better grip and may have helped our ancestors uproot wet plants when foraging for food, or be more sure-footed in a slippery, wet environment.