What is the Point of Earwax?

Yellow, sticky and disgusting by definition, ear wax doesn’t exactly enjoy a positive reputation. But despite its grungy connotations, the latest research shows that earwax actually plays a pivotal role in cleaning the ears.

Undergraduate researcher Zac Zachow is a self-confessed ear wax aficionado, and recently spoke at the annual meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology. He explained that ear wax is a self-cleaning marvel, that actively prevents debris from building up in the ear canal.

A DIY deep clean

Secreted by the ear canal itself, yellow wax coats the tiny hairs that line the channel. The hairs then form a sticky net, which traps dust particles as they enter the ears. Over time, debris builds up and eventually transforms wax from a gummy goo to a dusty paste. Zachow muses that the motion of chewing gradually separates and dislodges the wax, which allows it to eventually crumble out of the ears. This gives the canal a deep clean, and makes room for new wax to continue the process.

Working with doctoral student Alexis Noel from Atlanta’s Georgia Tech, Zachow treated his audience to a quirky demonstration. Armed with a dollop of pig’s ear wax, he slowly mixed in flour which transformed the texture from sticky to crumbly. They then screened a video of a person eating a doughnut, with a tiny camera lodged inside the ear. As they chewed, ear wax appeared to shift, and confirmed their theory that jaw movements play an all-important role.  

From ears to engineers

So what does this mean for modern science? As well as contributing to the medical sphere, Zachow points out that the discovery could translate into an industrial context. Dust build up in machinery is a major issue for engineers, and Zachow claims that the ear wax ejection process could be used as a template for developing self-cleaning adhesives. This could revolutionise the construction of dust-magnet machinery like home air-filtration systems, as well as set standards for high-tech robotics and other fields.

"Obviously you're not going to have earwax sitting on a Mars rover to protect it from dust," jokes Noel. "We are still trying to understand what is earwax and how does it work the way it works. And once we really understand that we can start applying it [to new technology]."

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