Sex and science usually steer clear of one another, and rightfully so. Most people don’t want their sex clinical and most researchers don’t want their science emotional. Yet lately the science of sex seems to have entered the public discourse in a big way. Olivia Judson (author of Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation) blogs for the New York Times; and Bonk, a book about scientific research into the how's and why’s of sex, is a best seller.

Starting next week, nanophysics and biomimicry get celebrated alongside sculpture and painting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Design and the Elastic Mind, MoMAs most science-centric exhibition to date, explores recent collaborations among scientists and designers. The results—teddy bears impregnated with the chicken pox virus, lollipops that deliver a visual explosion with every lick—are sometimes far out.