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The five senses of sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste define the world for us. Sensing technologies augment these primary sensing capabilities: Mechanical sensors broaden our perception of the world by being sensitive to objects that we cannot ‘sense’ and then translate it in a format so that we can. A false color-map of galaxies produced by a radio-telescope, the trajectories in a bubble-chamber of a subatomic particle, the sound of a carbon monoxide alarm, or an MRI image of the brain are all translations of information adapted specifically for us. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the history of sensors parallels the development of science and technology.