Why do we itch, anyway? Science is just beginning to scratch the surface. Here’s Ed Yong, writing for National Geographic:
In a laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, Santosh Mishra and Mark Hoon have bred a group of mice with an enviable super-power—they’re immune to itching. You can dab their skin with substances that would send most of us into a scratching frenzy, and they’ll be completely unfazed.
These mice also lack a gene called Nppb. Mishra and Hoon believe that the neurons that produce Nppb are the root of itching—but they didn’t come to this discovery on purpose; their original aim was slightly different. Read Yong’s article (linked above) for the fascinating backstory.
And to prove our point that everybody itches, here are some pictures of animals itching:
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