The beautiful, mysterious science of how you hear

Have you ever wondered how your ears work? In this delightful and fascinating talk, biophysicist Jim Hudspeth demonstrates the wonderfully simple yet astonishingly powerful mechanics of hair cells, the microscopic powerhouses that make hearing possible — and explains how, when it’s really quiet, your ears will begin to beam out a spectrum of sounds unique to you.

This talk was presented at a TED Institute event given in partnership with The Kavli Foundation, the Simons Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences. TED editors featured it among our selections on the home page. Read more about the TED Institute.

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