Often these surprising sources of loud sounds come about from a misguided belief that loud means fun—the louder it is, the more festive. The good news? Because the decibel scale is logarithmic, turning it down even a little can help save our hearing a lot.

When thinking about exposure to loud sounds, it is important to take a life-course perspective. That is, the health behaviors developed in childhood and adolescence can shape habits into adulthood.

I know the only way I could hear it is if we all stopped playing and moved up to the net every time someone has something to say.

The team’s analysis uncovered a surprising diversity of supporting cells, the “non-sensory cellular guardians” that surround and protect the sensory hair cells and may facilitate their regeneration