It has long been noted that there exists a public fascination with the macabre, crime and criminality. This paper will explore not just public fascination with crime but will argue that science and art provides a ‘softening lens’ which creates a palatable and normative bridge between morbid sensation seeking behaviour and societally acceptable education of the public. Data will be drawn from an autoethnographic study of the temporary forensic science exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, London, UK February-June 2015 and the commissioned involvement of crime fiction writer Val McDermid.