ears

Something Bad Happened to Neanderthals 110,000 Years Ago—and It May Have Sealed Their Fate

A recent study compared features of Neanderthals' inner ears across space and time to extrapolate what happened to them tens of thousands of years ago.

Biology Margherita Bassi Feb 28

Humans Lost the Ability to Swivel Their Ears—But These Vestigial Muscles Still Twitch

Evolution has largely deprived us of our ability to swivel our ears, but those vestigial muscles still activate when we listen intently, according to new research.

Biology Margherita Bassi Jan 31

These Cat Ears Move Based on Your Brain Waves

The revamped Necomimi also comes with speakers that meow and purr.

Gadgets Victoria Song Jul 19

Healing Crystals, Hurricane Dorian, and a $14,000 Gamer Chair: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

The first week of September 2019 is over, folks, and we came back from Labor Day cool, relaxed, and ready for news—and boy did we get it. Over the past few days, we’ve hit everything from an exclusive look at a letter former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick wrote admitting his failures, a major Wikileaks source…

Tech News Tom McKay Sep 8

How I Tried to Sell the ‘Healing’ Crystals in My Ears

If you’ve ever been dizzy without a cause—no alcohol in your system, no blunt trauma to the head, no ear infection—you may have experienced benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. It’s a common condition: approximately 10 percent of people will experience BPPV before they die. Despite its prevalence, vertigo’s cause borders on the mystic. Deep inside the…

Health Eleanor Cummins Sep 3

Semen Smugglers, Spreadsheets, and Laughing to Death: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

It’s been a weird one this week at Gizmodo, folks: From hacking buttplugs and realizing our dog photos have personally identifiable information in them to smuggled boar semen and an Arctic weather station hitting nearly 95 degrees Fahrenheit, we’ve been hard at work churning out the content you crave and that makes our heads hurt.…

Tech News Tom McKay Aug 18

Scientists Say They’ve Created a Smartphone App That Can Hear Ear Infections

Wondering if your kid is dealing with an ear infection? Soon, according to researchers at the University of Washington, there’ll be an app for that. They claim to have created a simple test that uses a smartphone and folded up paper to detect one of the telltale signs of infection—fluid in the ears—with about the…

Health Ed Cara May 15

How Do You Hear Without ‘Ears’?

History’s littered with lost ears: Van Gogh’s, Evander Holyfield’s, that ear Kyle MacLachlan finds in a field in Blue Velvet, etc. Or maybe ears is the wrong word. The weird little flesh-whorls that jut out from the sides of most of our heads are just small components of a much larger, delicately interconnected system. Remove…

Tech News Daniel Kolitz Mar 5

Five Chinese Children Get Lab-Made Ears Grown From Their Own Cells

Chinese scientists say they’ve accomplished something that’s long been a goal in the world of regenerative medicine—giving someone a new, perfectly compatible (external) ear, freshly grown in the lab. What makes the feat a world-first is that the ear was made using that person’s very own cells. The experimental procedure was performed on five children,…

Health Ed Cara Jan 30

UK Doctors Actually Got Together and Studied How Much Ears Grow as We Age

A group of UK doctors got together and measured ear growth with age. Then they decided to teach us all the European terms for big ears. Because why not? We all know that ears and other body parts made of cartilaginous material grow as we age, but no one really knew how much it grew.…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Aug 17

My Cyborg Ear: How a Surgeon and Titanium Cured My Lifelong Deafness

I’ve never been able to hear well. As a child, I was in and out of the hospital as doctors struggled to treat chronic ear infections that left me in throbbing pain and, eventually, relative silence. By the time I went to college, I had only one half-functioning ear drum and no hope of regaining…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes May 15

How a desert cat uses its super ears to hunt birds in mid-flight

This footage of a desert cat taking out a bird in mid-flight is another impressive reminder of the astonishing power of natural evolution. The small but agile caracal uses 20 muscles —in three distinct groups—to independently control each of its ears, which act as supersensitive parabolic sound antennas. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome…

Sploid James Baker Jul 28

A Replica Of The World’s Most Famous Ear Is Now On Display

A German museum is exhibiting a 3D-printed copy of Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh’s ear grown from the genetic material of a distant relative. Vincent Van Gogh famously cut off his own left ear during a psychotic episode in 1888. Now, the Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe is displaying a replica of this…

io9 George Dvorsky Jun 4

Kitten wiggling its ears like a real life gremlin while he eats

Here’s a tiny kitten so happy to eat that he wiggles his ears out of pure enjoyment—or something—like Gizmo the mogwai. Apparently, animals moving their ears when they feel pleasure is a thing. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Sploid Jesus Diaz Feb 24

Test How Old Your Ears Are (And How Much Damage You’ve Done to Them)

Deep down we all know we shouldn’t crank our music or listen to headphones with the volume really high, but we still do. And if you’ve ever wondered if years of hard rock has done any serious damage, here’s an easy way to find out. Over time what’s known as hair cells in your ears…

Health Andrew Liszewski Aug 13

Using Your iPhone To Detect Ear Infections Also Keeps the Doctor Away

Forget that daily apple. Researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University have developed the Remotoscope, an accessory that turns the iPhone into an ear-inspecting otoscope so doctors can diagnose and treat kids remotely in the event of an ear infection. It’s a simple clip-on attachment that puts a scope over the iPhone’s camera lens and…

Health Andrew Liszewski Oct 12

Woman Grows a New Ear on Her Arm, Has It Attached to Her Head (Warning: Graphic)

Yep, this happened. Doctors at Johns Hopkins have attached a new ear to a patient that was grown on her own forearm. It’s a medical first, and a heartwarming-if-a-little-yucky story. In 2008, Sherrie Walters was diagnosed with aggressive basal cell cancer, and had to have part of her ear, skull, and ear canal removed. But…

Tech News Kyle Wagner Sep 27

A Dog With Dumbo-Sized Ears

Harbor is an 8-year old Black and Tan Coonhound with big ears. His ears are so big, he now holds the Guinness World record for the Longest Ears on a Living Dog. This particular breed of dog is known for its larger ears, but Harbor’s ears are off the chart. His left ear measures 12.25…

Tech News Kelly Sep 8

Your Ears Might Be Better For Identification Than Your Fingerprints

On a planet hosting 6.7 billion human beings, having proof you’re unique is of tantamount importance. The ear, it turns out, may be the best identification yet. Through a new shape-finding algorithm called “image ray transform,” which boasts 99.6 percent accuracy, according to a study presented at the IEEE Fourth International Conference on Biometrics Sept.…

Privacy & Security Dave Mosher - Wired Nov 12

Canada Will Not Be Denied Its Combat-Jet-Loud SunChips Bags

Hearing loss be damned! Our rugged northern neighbors are defiantly standing behind the Frito-Lay bag that’s louder than a combat jet cockpit, a month after we namby-pamby Americans had them yanked from our shelves. Oh, Canada! https://gizmodo.com/sunchips-new-100-compostable-bag-is-hilariously-ear-d-5616427 As Frito-Lay sustainability/LOUDNOISES hero Helmi Ansari explains above, in Canada it’s more important to have a compost-compatible SunChip…

Tech News Brian Barrett Nov 4

ears

Something Bad Happened to Neanderthals 110,000 Years Ago—and It May Have Sealed Their Fate

Humans Lost the Ability to Swivel Their Ears—But These Vestigial Muscles Still Twitch

These Cat Ears Move Based on Your Brain Waves

Healing Crystals, Hurricane Dorian, and a $14,000 Gamer Chair: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

How I Tried to Sell the ‘Healing’ Crystals in My Ears

Semen Smugglers, Spreadsheets, and Laughing to Death: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week

Scientists Say They’ve Created a Smartphone App That Can Hear Ear Infections

How Do You Hear Without ‘Ears’?

Five Chinese Children Get Lab-Made Ears Grown From Their Own Cells

UK Doctors Actually Got Together and Studied How Much Ears Grow as We Age

My Cyborg Ear: How a Surgeon and Titanium Cured My Lifelong Deafness

How a desert cat uses its super ears to hunt birds in mid-flight

A Replica Of The World’s Most Famous Ear Is Now On Display

Kitten wiggling its ears like a real life gremlin while he eats

Test How Old Your Ears Are (And How Much Damage You’ve Done to Them)

Using Your iPhone To Detect Ear Infections Also Keeps the Doctor Away

Woman Grows a New Ear on Her Arm, Has It Attached to Her Head (Warning: Graphic)

A Dog With Dumbo-Sized Ears

Your Ears Might Be Better For Identification Than Your Fingerprints

Canada Will Not Be Denied Its Combat-Jet-Loud SunChips Bags

Crypto Project Details Alleged 6-Month North Korean Intel Op Behind $285 Million Hack

Crypto Investment Scams Were the Most Costly Type of Fraud in the U.S. in 2025

This $1.78/mo VPN Shouldn’t Be This Good: Surfshark’s Deal That Feels Illegal

Dropbox Is a Joke: Get pCloud Family at $1,550 Off With Free Password Manager

Someone Finally Took a Good iPhone Photo of the Moon. Good Luck Copying Their Trick

In Letter, OpenAI Reportedly Says Elon Musk and Meta Are Coordinating ‘Attacks’ Against It

Artemis 2 Day 6: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

Anonymous Sources Detail Sam Altman’s Alleged Untrustworthiness in New Report

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

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