Exhale Through the Gift Shop
The New York Times
Museums are adding scents as another tool for communicating information about science and other subjects in their exhibits.
Does dark matter smell like pepper? Just how stinky was the breath of Tyrannosaurus rex? What was the fragrance of an extinct flower? And what scents might greet us on the moon or Mars?
As museums break with static displays of the past by embracing interactive audio and visual and tactile displays, some have added scent to the sensory onslaught. The human sense of smell, which has powerful connections to memory and emotion, has been deployed in art and historical displays and museums around the world. A recent exhibit highlights the use of scent for science communication by enlivening subjects that might otherwise seem heady and abstract.
The Corning Museum of Glass’s “Sensorium: Stories of Glass and Fragrance” lets visitors experience some displays through the nose as much as the eyes.
Smell is “something that museums can use in a very intentional way to paint a picture that is a little bit more visceral and immediate,” said Julie Bellemare, curator of early modern glass at the museum, which is in Corning, N.Y.
“Sensorium,” running through Feb. 1, 2025, includes about 70 objects that embody the role of glass as a vessel for concocting and containing fragrances. The exhibit traces the use of glass in antiquity and chronicles scientific advances along the way, including the invention of alembics used for distillation.
Before visitors peruse the exhibition’s ancient perfume bottles and gilded atomizers, they are greeted at the entrance by a smelling station. People can lift flaps to sniff four scents — cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and mace — that correspond to spiced oils that were held in ornate flasks used in the 1700s as diplomatic gifts by Dutch merchants.
A “red alert” involving the private Blue Ghost mission in lunar orbit a year ago highlights a growing number of incidents above Earth’s neighbor.
The tech giant pushed back the timeline after spending billions to be on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence.
Practitioners nationwide are striving to do what’s best for children’s health, while staying supportive in the face of mistrust and confusion.
A group of scientists and law enforcement officials are pointing to the role moss can play to help solve crimes.
Blaming chatbots, they are joining an earlier push for better protections by parents who say social media contributed to their children’s deaths.
Partula snails all but vanished from Polynesia after the arrival of a carnivorous foreign snail. But a global alliance of zoos has worked to bring them back.
Though high rates of the disease persist among the nearby Indigenous communities, the Canadian government is weighing rules that may allow energy giants to release treated mining waste into the river system.
A new study offers clues as to how the insects survive flooding as they emerge from a hibernation-like phase every winter.
Scientists studied centuries-old bird feathers from an ancient tomb on the coast, and then traced the origins back to the Amazon.
Blaming chatbots, they are joining an earlier push for better protections by parents who say social media contributed to their children’s deaths.
The agency is proposing allowing other tastes for vapes, like mint, coffees, spices or tea, to appeal to adults. At the same time, illicit candy-flavored types aimed at teenagers have flooded the market.
Dr. Vinay Prasad drew criticism for overriding career scientists and rejecting drugs by companies seeking agency approval.
Researchers have devised a new tool for discerning between naturally occurring viral outbreaks and those resulting from lab accidents.