Contagious Scratch

For centuries, medical science dismissed the itch as nothing more than a mild, low-grade form of pain. It was assumed that a light tap on a nerve caused an itch, while a hard hit caused agony. It wasn't until the late 1990s that neuroscientists discovered the bizarre truth: itching has its own dedicated, high-speed neural highway wired directly into the spinal cord, entirely separate from the pain...