How do we know?
↻ One of the pages with a moving picture
One man made a better bandage, and the bandage is still around.
- Tiny cells called platelets rush to the scrape. A sticky protein called fibrin makes long strings that catch red blood cells in a net: a clot!
- The clot dries and hardens into a scab. It covers the wound like a shield.
- Under the scab, white blood cells fight germs and start repairs.
- New tissue grows over the next 3 weeks or so. When the new skin is ready, the scab falls off.
Earle Dickson stuck small pads of gauze onto surgical tape and covered the sticky part with cloth so it could be peeled off. His company, Johnson & Johnson, began selling it as the Band-Aid brand bandage.
About 100 years ago, a cotton buyer in New Brunswick, New Jersey, invented the stick-on bandage.
Skin keeps renewing itself. Every minute, thousands of dead skin cells fall off your body, and new ones keep growing.
Wow number
Thousands of dead skin cells fall off your body every minute, and new ones keep growing!
Myth or fact?
Picking off a scab helps it heal faster. Myth. Each new scab makes a scar more likely. Let it fall off on its own.
A scab is a dried blood clot. Fact. It’s a hard, dried clot that protects the wound.
Think about it
Why do you think a scab is crusty and hard instead of soft?
Where in the world?
New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA where, about 100 years ago, a cotton buyer invented the stick-on bandage — 40.4862° N, 74.4518° W.
Where these facts come from
Every number on page 78, and who measured it
This page tells us how many skin cells we lose every minute.
Hair, Skin, & Nails — KidsHealth, a health site for kids from Nemours Children's Health
kidshealth.org/en/kids/skin.html
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page tells us how a scab forms and why you shouldn't pick it.
What Is a Scab? — Cleveland Clinic, a big hospital in Ohio
my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/scab
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page tells us how to take care of a scrape.
How wounds heal: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia — MedlinePlus, health information from the U.S. National Library of Medicine
medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000741.htm
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page tells us how Earle Dickson made the first Band-Aid.
Earle Dickson — The Lemelson-MIT Program, which celebrates inventors
lemelson.mit.edu/resources/earle-dickson
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page tells us when Earle Dickson made his first bandage.
Earle Dickson │ The National Inventors Hall of Fame® — The National Inventors Hall of Fame
invent.org/inductees/earle-dickson
We checked it on 31 October 2026
Has this changed?
How a scrape heals is not going to change.
The Band-Aid is a brand name that became a word for any stick-on bandage.
Words from this page
- platelet
- A tiny cell in your blood that rushes to a cut to help stop the bleeding.
- fibrin
- A sticky protein that makes strings to catch blood cells in a net.
- scab
- A hard, dried clot that covers a wound like a shield.
Try it!
Make a clot net.
1. Stretch 4 or 5 rubber bands across the top of a plastic cup, crisscrossing them. 2. With a grown-up, pour a handful of beads or dry beans over the bands. 3. Add more bands. How many beads get caught now? (Beads and beans are not for mouths!)
What happens: the more “strings” there are, the more beads get caught, like fibrin catching blood cells.
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