The Dancing Cells Inside Your Ear

There are cells inside your ear, physically changing shape thousands of times a second, stretching and contracting perfectly in time with whatever sound is around you. In this episode of Earvangelism, I break down outer hair cells: the only sensory cells in your body that work backwards, turning an electrical signal back into movement, and using that movement to amplify the very sound that triggered them. This mind-boggling biology is exactly what lets us test a newborn baby's hearing without needing a single word from them. Nowhere else in the body will you find anatomy quite this wild. Tune in!