“An ear’s size is irrelevant; what matters are the properties of a shape that’s intrigued humanity for millennia, inspiring ancient Greek mathematicians and Renaissance painters and anyone who’s ever contemplated a nautilus shell or the center of a sunflower. As scientists better understand the cochlea, might they be able to tweak it? Could they someday make the bass on Junior Wilson’s ‘Dock of the Bay’ remix carry my brain out of my head and across the Pacific, just like it wants to?”