A researcher thinks she knows why people keep touching museum exhibits

Museums are updating their approach to wall texts amid 8-second-long attention spans

The explanatory text found next to art in museums has long been integral to the exhibit experience, helping provide context for artists, the piece, and cultural movements. Some institutions are removing the texts to allow visitors to interpret the pieces unaided; others are seeking to optimize length or recruit a variety of perspectives—called "labelists"—to offer less authoritative context for the pieces.

Efforts to build touch-enabled machines highlight the complexity of human touch

The challenges that engineers are facing as they try to reproduce a human's ability to touch and also give robots the ability to interpret that kind of sensory flow are furthering our understanding of the myriad intricacies of human touch—and the challenges in emulating it.

73% of people report they crave more physical touch in their lives

This figure came from a 2019 survey of 110 adults and examined what's formally called a "touch gap." Touch helps reduce stress, strengthening our immune system, and overall well-being. It can also improve children's health, adjustment, and IQ scores.

Blindfolded people could identify objects by touch alone a week after encountering them

These touch memories are more complex and durable than previously thought. In research published in 2018, blindfolded volunteers touched over 150 household objects for about 10 seconds each, and afterward correctly identified the objects more than 90 percent of the time when presented with the object and a similar one. Participants still knew most of the objects a week later with about 85 percent accuracy. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Meet the psychologist who reads people through the art they live with

Dimitrios Tsivrikos, an academic psychologist at University College London, says the art someone hangs in their home reveals as much about them as a bookshelf would. He advises going on a first date at a museum and asking each other about the work on the walls.

Humans likely cannot tickle themselves because there's no element of surprise

Unraveling the neural mechanisms of tickling—formally called gargalesis—is an area of active research, but a leading theory about why we can't tickle ourselves is that the brain's somatosensory cortex processes self-touch differently than it does external touch. The cerebellum already anticipated what was going to happen when you move your hand for self-touch, limiting the effectiveness of a self-tickle.

Whose bodies are held inside the American Museum of Natural History?

The American Museum of Natural History holds the remains of at least 12,000 people collected via purchase, donation, or expedition. This article by a professor of art crime details their attempt to identify the individuals whose remains the museum held. Amid questioning, AMNH announced it would change its human remains policy. At the time of the article's publication in October 2023, AMNH had few human remains on public display.

A look at the principles guiding the Met's collection practices

While there are serious questions about the provenance of pieces that the Met has acquired in the past, the museum says its collecting practices today are all guided by three principles: research, transparency, and collaboration. A particularly interesting facet of their approach to research is looking into how pieces might have changed hands during the Nazi occupation of Europe and to whom (and where) they truly belong.

Scientists are reconstructing ancient smells—including a 3,500-year-old ancient Egyptian mummy

Researchers explain how they have recreated the scent of ancient Egyptian mummies and enabled museum-goers to experience that scent on specialized cards. The exhibit will be at the Royal BC Museum in Canada in June 2026.

Some estimate that roughly 70% of artifacts in museums are stolen

New York City assistant district attorney Matthew Bogdano targets the illicit art world. Bogdano claims that traders and traffickers of stolen art have often been able to get away with their crimes due to their connections with members of the elite. His efforts have led to the recovery of around 4,500 antiquities valued at around $300M.

Hear the untold colonial backstories of the British Museum’s most famous artifacts

This podcast from VICE’s Unfiltered History Tour visits the British Museum’s prized objects through accounts from experts and communities from which they were taken.

Electromagnetic repulsion prevents objects from making contact with one another

The feeling of touching something is a sensation caused by the electromagnetic force between the electrons on the surface of objects. Since this force grows to infinity with proximity, no two surfaces can ever achieve matter-to-matter contact.

What's the point of archaeology?

Archaeology as a science may seem focused on tangible goods, with its emphasis on material evidence of peoples long passed. But its findings influence how humans interact today (and possibly tomorrow). From understanding and improving on concrete to...

How can octopuses and MDMA help scientists understand the human brain?

Research shows that psychedelics may induce something called "critical periods" in the adult brain, which can make our brains more open to learning and changing, like they once were back in early childhood. Psychedelics similarly change how social creatures like octopuses behave, which demonstrates that these animals could help us better understand our own neurobiology.

Items in the Curie Museum do not produce significant radioactivity today

Ionizing radiation produced by elements such as uranium, polonium, and radium can damage living things, but the trace amounts found in the museum objects that Marie Curie once touched have been largely decontaminated, with more dangerous items stored in protective, lead-lined containers.

Did a Smithsonian anthropologist steal people's brains?

This comic examines "racial brain collection" of Ales Hrdlicka, the Smithsonian's head of physical anthropology during the early 1900s. Hrdlicka was a white supremacist who sought physical evidence for his theories on anatomical differences between...

A massive list of wildly specific museums

The definition of a museum varies depending on who you ask and where you find yourself. Need proof? Check out this list of over 80 museums—dedicated to niche interests like hand fans, hovercrafts, and celebrity leftovers (really).

Horror offers opportunities to safely experiment with fear

Researchers at Denmark’s Aarhus University study people attracted to what they call “recreational fear,” which includes any media (like a horror movie) or experience (like a haunted house) that’s intended to give them a scare. They say these people appreciate playing with fears and anxieties safely.

‘Rhythm’ 0 was a performance piece that exposed human nature

By inviting the audience to do as they please without repercussions, Abramović showed the public both the beauty and hideousness of human nature. Playful interactions eventually turned into assault, and the performance left her with scars she still wears decades later.

A history of manicules, or the little hands in books and posters

Manicules are illustrated hands used in many contexts to point something out, whether by medieval readers to highlight passages or in 19th-century advertising. The hands have a quirky, persistent history, showing up over hundreds of years in everything from Petrarch's books to computer cursors and the US Postal Service's "Return to Sender" stamp.

When did humans start kissing romantically?

This article explores the ancient roots of romantic kissing. Current archaeological evidence dates sexual and romantic lip kissing to about 2,500 BCE. A Mesopotamian clay tablet from the time shares a tale of two deities locking lips. There's also...

Nostalgia is a psychological coping mechanism created from bias

Memories are naturally reconstructed during recall, and research has shown a fading effect bias that causes negative ones to fade more quickly, helping us heal. This creates a natural longing for the past, particularly when faced with loneliness, boredom, or challenging moments in the present.

A primer on human tears

Tears are one of the many behaviors that differentiate humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. Why do we cry? This comprehensive and well-written essay explores various theories about why we cry, observes tear fluid as the only one that does not elicit disgust, and attempts to interpret the meaning of tears in different circumstances. See what all the fuss is about here.

The origins of our fascination with time travel

Humans have been captivated by the prospect of leaping forward and backward in time for thousands of years. Georgia Institute of Technology Science Fiction Studies Professor Lisa Yaszek recounts how the concept has been utilized by storytellers from 400 BCE to modern-day to explore our relationship with the supernatural, technology, and the past. In a way, this historical recounting is a journey through time.

Baby monkeys chose a soft, warm doll over a wire one with food

Harry Harlow performed controversial experiments with newborn monkeys, separating them from their mothers and letting them bond with stand-in mother figures made from either wire or figures covered in cloth—both with monkey-like faces. The work investigated touch, bonding, and attachment, and found that monkeys overwhelmingly preferred the cloth dolls over the wire ones in various stressful situations.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.