Senses

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

Abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky, who may have been a synesthete, once said: "Color is the key. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with its many chords. The artist is the hand that, by touching this or that key, sets the soul vibrating automatically."

Feel the Music—Literally—With Some Help From New Synesthesia Research

How one artist created a show inspired by the neurological experience of synesthesia

Latrines in Bangladesh

This "Perfume" for Toilets Could Help Improve Sanitation Around the World

The odor-masking scent could help convince people to choose latrines and prevent pollution of waterways with waste

Adriaen van de Venne engraved this early depiction of a Dutch telescope. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

10 Bizarre, Vision-Enhancing Technologies From the Last 1,000 Years

Before Oculus Rift, there were lorgnettes, TV glasses and eyborgs

A new flavor wheel groups together different flavor attributes of coffee.

Describe Your Coffee With Science

There's an art—and a lot of science—to a consistent cup of coffee

Follow your nose, leopard shark.

Leopard Sharks Navigate With Their Noses

After being kidnapped and dropped off at sea, the sharks picked up on olfactory cues to find their way back home

Adding Faint Scents to Healthy Food Could Make it Taste Better

Scents of salty food may be all it takes to make low-salt items delicious

Eau de Death: Perfumer Develops Scents Based on Dead Loved Ones

A French perfumer is attempting to harness the emotional power of scent

Men and Women See Things Differently (No, Literally)

Color perception may actually have something to do with gender

As We Get Older We Get More Tolerant of Discordant Music

Hearing loss isn’t the only thing that changes our music perception as we age

Here’s Why Your Eyes Seem to Be Wired 'Backward'

Light has to pass through nerve cells to get to the rods and cones, but that order is no mistake

Scientists Have Been Studying Two Fake Human Pheromones for Decades

Two chemicals provided by a perfume company appear in a 1991 research paper and side-track years of work on human pheromones

A Prado visitor touches a 3-D printed replica of a contemporaneous copy of the "Mona Lisa."

Please Touch the Art: 3-D Printing Helps Visually Impaired Appreciate Paintings

The new "Touching the Prado" exhibit in Madrid showcases 3-D replicas of paintings, so blind visitors can feel key works of art

Meet the Man Who Can Taste Words

For some, taste mixes with other sense—a form of synesthesia that isn't as common as experiencing the colors of words

Dabbling around for a meal.

Ducks Help Explain How We Feel All the Feels

Highly sensitive nerves in duck bills are offering clues to the way we experience the sense of touch

High-Speed Video Shows When The Smell of Rain Begins

Now we can see exactly how raindrops create petrichor, the name given to smells kicked up by light rain

Meet The Culprits Behind Bright Lights And Strange Floaters in Your Vision

So-called entoptic phenomena remind us that what we see isn’t always a clear view of the world around us

Stretched over a prosthetic hand, this artificial skin acts more like the real thing than anything before it.

Artificial Skin Could Help Prosthesis Wearers Feel, For Real

A new polymer with a lattice of embedded sensors is sensitive to heat, humidity and pressure

We Choose Friends Who Are Genetically Similar to Us

On average, our friends are like the genetic equivalents of fourth cousins

The Human Nose Can Distinguish Between One Trillion Different Smells

New research says our olfactory system is far more sensitive than we thought

Page 4 of 5