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at slowdown show.org. I'm Maggie Smith, and this is The Slowdown.

It's funny how we talk about the right brain and the left brain, and about math and science versus poetry and art.

When actually, there is a lot of math in poetry, the way there is a lot of math in music. And on the other hand, there is a lot of

poetry in science. You're listening to this podcast right now, so you're enjoying the art

of poetry thanks to the science of sound and hearing. I think we take all of our

senses for granted until they falter. You hardly appreciate your vision until it starts to go.

I say this as someone very near-sighted, who's worn glasses since age nine.

You hardly appreciate your sense of smell or taste or hearing until they're compromised by age or illness or injury. And frankly, how much do we know or remember from biology class about how these senses are processed by the human body?

I know our hearing involves sound waves and the structures of the ear, but I wouldn't have been able to explain it in depth or draw you a diagram.

So I did a little research, and as I suspected, there is plenty of poetry, by which I mean music and mystery, in the science.

Sound waves travel to the eardrum, which vibrates. Those vibrations move to three tiny bones

in the middle ear.

Those bones amplify the vibrations

and send them to a fluid-filled structure

called the cochlea.

In the cochlea, the vibrations cause the fluid

to ripple, creating a kind of wave.

Hair cells ride that wave, and as they move up and down, microscopic hair-like projections,

...