Tender touches come courtesy of skin cells with an unromantic name: Merkel cells.
Scientists have debated the role of Merkel cells in the skin since they were first discovered in 1875. Now a study in the June 19 Science, led by researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, shows that the cells are essential for transmitting the sense of light touch, the kind of touch that helps distinguish between velvet and Velcro.
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