… As the weeks of coronavirus quarantine stretched into months, hugs are among the many things isolated people found themselves aching for. Hugs are good for humans — perhaps more valuable than many of us realized, until we found ourselves missing them. Research has shown that hugs can lower our cortisol levels during stressful More
A team including APS Past Treasurer Roberta Klatzky took home first prize in the Haptic Interfaces for Public Safety Challenge. More
Tiffany Field has spent decades trying to get people to touch one another more. Her efforts started with premature babies, when she found that basic human touch led them to quickly gain weight. An initial small study, published in the journal Pediatrics in 1986, showed that just 10 days of More
Exploring objects through touch can generate detailed, durable memories for those objects, even when we don’t intend to memorize the object’s details. More
Scientific American: During my final semester of undergrad, I made two signs that read, “Feeling stressed about exams? Have a free hug!” Then I recruited a friend and we stood in the entrance of the campus library, held up the signs, and waited. Passerbys had one of two reactions: Either More
Salon: It’s February. Are you sick? If you are, don’t fret. The Centers for Disease Control tells us that cold and flu season peaks in January and February, so statistically speaking, your sniffles are nothing special. And, believe me, I feel for you. I have a 4-year-old daughter who is More
