Senses

ELIA's blocky characters echo the Roman alphabet, with the goal of making it easier to learn for people who lost sight late in life.

Could This New Tactile Font Help People Who Lose Their Sight Late In Life?

ELIA Frames may serve some blind readers better than braille, but the new system has its skeptics

The Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer, or VEST, has 32 vibrating motors distributed around the torso.

Could This Futuristic Vest Give Us a Sixth Sense?

For starters, the new technology—appearing on 'Westworld' before hitting the market—could help the deaf parse speech and ambient noise

Unraveling the Genetics Behind Why Some People "See" Sound and "Hear" Color

Researchers find several genes that regulate the wiring for synesthesia in the brain

Praying Mantises Don Tiny Goggles to Help Us Understand 3-D Vision

Unlike humans and other animals, the insects rely on movement to judge distances to their prey

Perhaps all this little bug needs is a few good swats.

Swatting May Teach Mosquitoes to Avoid Your Scent

Though it won't work for all species, <em>Aedes aegypti</em> mosquitos seem to have a memory for near-death experiences

Video games can help train the brain to hear better.

Can a Video Game Train You To Hear Better In a Crowded Room?

A new study finds it's possible to teach the brain to better distinguish between speech and background noise

This woman won't do justice to the smell of this peach when she describes it to a friend later.

New Study Suggests Lifestyle Shapes Our Ability to Name Odors

In the Malay Peninsula, researchers compared the vocabulary of the Semaq Beri hunter-gathering population and the Semelai, who are horticulturalists

In the Seeing gallery, decorated walls lit with an alternating series of colored lights reveal just how much a world bathed in white light can differ from one illuminated by blue, green or red.

See the World Through the Eyes of a Butterfly at a New Exhibit on the Senses

The American Museum of Natural History’s newest exhibition reveals how our brains make sense of the world around us

Even Without Ears, Oysters Can Hear Our Noise Pollution

Study shows that certain frequencies of noise cause oysters to clam up

Researchers Sniff Out the Genes Behind the Smell of the World's Stinkiest Fruit

The DNA of the durian, it turns out, is very complex and optimized for producing a wretched stench

Everyone sees them all, but we don’t all give them the same distinct names.

The World Has Millions of Colors. Why Do We Only Name a Few?

Cognitive scientists suggest that we name the colors of things we want to talk about

A Scopali's shearwater skims the water's surface.

Seabirds Use Their Sense of Smell to Navigate Open Water

A new study suggests shearwaters follow their nose home

Aromatic New Museum Celebrates the Art and History of Perfume

From the ancient Egyptians to Elizabeth Taylor, the Grand Musée du Parfum tells the story of fragrance

You can't sit with us. You smell like poo.

Gut Check: Mandrills Sniff Poop to Avoid Peers With Parasites

Researchers have documented one of the first instances of social avoidance in a non-human animal

Heritage scientist Cecilia Bembibre captures the smell of a 18th-century bible at Knole House.

The Quest to Better Describe the Scent of Old Books

Describing a unique smell just got easier thanks to a pair of olfactory detectives

Nearly blind, Typhlomys cinereus thrives in the high forests of southeastern China and Vietnam—with a little help from another sense.

This Echolocating Dormouse Could Reveal the Origins of One of Nature’s Coolest Superpowers

Mice, moths and even humans use clicks and echoes to "see" the world around them

So Is 'Mona Lisa' Smiling? A New Study Says Yes

Compared to other similar images, the masterpiece's mouth registered as happy to almost 100 percent of the participants

Psst--smell my feet.

Bumblebees May Smell Each Other's Footprints to Keep Track of Flowers

In a new study, bumblebees were able to discriminate the foot odor left behind by their nestmates, strange bees and themselves

Synesthesia, or the entangling of the senses, may be much more common than once thought.

One in Five People May Be Able to "Hear" a Flash of Light

Once thought to be a rare condition, some forms of synesthesia may be fairly common

North Sense, about a square inch in size and enclosed in body-compatible silicone, can be anchored to the chest via titanium piercings.

This Artificial Sixth Sense Helps Humans Orient Themselves in the World

A London-based company is selling North Sense, a body-anchored device that vibrates when it faces magnetic north

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