Some of the mice were allowed to scratch their rash. Their ears became swollen and filled with neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that helps the body fight infection. The mice that couldn’t ...

How many times were you told not to scratch an itchy rash when you were a kid because you’d only make it worse? Well, it turns out that advice was actually correct and now we know why ...

“So, if you have an itch, don’t scratch it. It’ll only make the rash worse.” Sahana is a science journalist and an intern at The Scientist, with a background in neuroscience and microbiology. She has ...

The urge to scratch an itch is pretty hard to resist. So why do we have it if it makes the condition worse? Well, the scientists think that though the reaction may worsen the rash itself, it could ...

It can feel nice to run your nails over an itchy bit of skin, which hints that there is an evolutionary reason we get pleasure from doing it, and yet it can also aggravate eczema and rashes or ...