Our Ears Do Not Hear

Relations,

This is a lesson I learned while reading an article about University of South Florida researchers finding a hearing-loss gene. At first I was very wowed by this, then came across the piece that this will not be available to the public for fifteen years. Ain't that some Murphy's Law rubbish right there? It is noted the genetic biomarker - known as GRM1 - can lead to age related hearing loss that is more severe and earlier than normal.

This article was from the Tampa Bay Times via The Washington Post.

I have learned at the age of fifty three that we do not hear with our ears. Really, this is true.

How We Hear,

We actually hear with our brains, not our ears. Sound waves - literally, waves of compressed air molecules - enter the ear are converted into electrical impulses that travel to the brain. The brain interprets the impulses as the phenomenon we call sound. The complexity of the ear makes it prone to failures minor and major.

Don't judge. I really did not learn this until the Sixth day of December 2012...

...one of those - "well, I be damned" moments. Really. All of these years I have thought the ear was the hearing organ. Guess it ain't, ain't it?

The genetic biomarker sounds like a Germ Warfare weapon or some-shit-like-that to me. GRM1? Well? Sounds dangerous.

Bella's...