Tiny sensory hair cells inside your inner ear known as stereocilia bend in response to sound waves and convert those vibrations into electrical signals for your brain, but humans…

A closer look

Tiny sensory hair cells inside your inner ear known as stereocilia bend in response to sound waves and convert those vibrations into electrical signals for your brain, but humans are born with only about fifteen thousand of these fragile little structures per ear and they never regenerate once destroyed; this means that every single time you crank your headphones to maximum volume to drown out the existential dread of your morning commute, you are permanently executing hundreds of irreplaceable auditory sensors, slowly condemning yourself to a future where you will constantly have to ask people to repeat themselves at dinner parties because you blasted heavy metal directly into your skull during your twenties