Lookout Louis Pasteur!

Have you ever wondered where all of the money spent in the US each year on medical research is spent? Cancer? Heart Disease? Diabetes? Nah! Courtesy of Foxnews.com we find today that scientists have discovered why scratching feels so good.

Nobody knows just how scratching relieves itch. But the federally funded monkey study, reported Monday on the Web site of the journal Nature Neuroscience by Giesler and colleagues, takes a step in unraveling the mystery.
The scientists focused on a kind of spinal nerve that transmits the "itch" signal to the brain. These nerves reach into the brain from near the bottom of the rib cage.
The researchers sedated long-tailed macaques for the experiment and placed recording electrodes on their spinal nerves. They injected a chemical into the skin of a leg to produce itching. The nerves fired electrical signals in response.

If you can endure it the rest of the story can be found here.