Backyard Science: A New Cure for Bruises?
By Karen Schrock
This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
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A few days ago I grilled up some kielbasa in my Brooklyn backyard. Several mosquitoes were also enjoying dinner in my backyard, and one of them hit the motherlode: the little sucker bit me right on a bruise (a relic from SciAm's recent softball game against Popular Science). For a while I sported a beautiful purple-ringed red welt, but today I noticed that the mosquito bite is gone -- and so is the bruise underneath it. Did the mosquito actually suck the blood out of my bruise? In fact, could it have bitten me there ON PURPOSE? Or maybe my immune reaction to the mosquito bite somehow cleared out the bruise in that area more quickly than in the surrounding skin. Either way, it looks pretty awesome. I'm glad it's still warm enough to wear a skirt!
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