Scratching an itch can bring a contradictory wave of pleasure and misery. A mouse study on scratching, reported in the Jan. 31 Science, fleshes out this head-scratching paradox and could point out ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The itchiness that comes with some annoying dermatological ...

We all know that picking and scratching at a scab is a bad idea — it'll just make it take longer to heal and could even lead to infection. But a healing scab just begs to be scratched. So why do scabs ...

Despite the saying “happiness is having a scratch for every itch,” itching often makes the itchy skin condition worse. So why is the instinct so strong? In a study with mice, researchers from the ...

Scientists show for the first time that bacteria can cause itch by activating nerve cells in the skin. The findings can inform new therapies to treat itch that occurs in inflammatory skin conditions ...

I remember it well: our dark winter of itch when the kids were small. It started with a note sent home—years before the pandemic—that my child had been exposed, not to a deadly virus but to lice.

Like humans, mice normally scratch themselves in response to itchy compounds. As such, scientists can use mice to study new approaches to treat chronic itch conditions like atopic dermatitis (eczema) ...

We’ve all had that urge to scratch an itch. But why do we do it? Credit: Tambako/Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0 The pandemic has us feeling a lot of things: anxious, stressed, tired. But what about itchy? Have ...

What’s common between a scratchy sweater, a mosquito bite, and poison ivy? A brush with any of them guarantees an itchy spot on the skin. Scratching that itch is extremely tempting because of how ...

It seems hard to believe that a basic human sensation — one that can be evoked by a simple mosquito bite — still has scientists scratching their heads. Yet despite centuries of study, understanding ...