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SALT LAKE CITY -- What we continue to learn about the human body is nothing short of amazing. Researchers in Utah and Texas have discovered a new nano-scale motor in the ear that is powered by its own form of electricity.
As music plays, fluid moves in sync and tiny hair-like tubes atop hair cells wave back and forth in the cochlea of the inner ear. Researchers have always suspected another kind of motor mechanism was involved in the amplification of sound. Now, they've found it.
"What we're reporting here is a new motor that really hasn't been understood in the past. It's in the stereo cilia, the little tubes on top of the cell," explained Richard Rabbitt, of the University of Utah's bioengineering department.
Inside the inner ear, the little dancing hair-like tubes actually act as electric motors.
"It's just based on the physics. It doesn't require any accessory structures. It doesn't require anything magic. It's just inherent in the physics of these nanotubes," said Katie Breneman, also with the university's bioengineering department.
Simple, yet ever so sophisticated. On cue, potassium, which is already in the fluid of the ear, flows through a nano-opening, producing the electricity that drives the motors -- liquid-crystal membrane motors that are what are called flexo-electric.
Like the power steering on a car, the motors add power to the sound, amplifying something even as miniscule as blood pulsating in your ear.
Even more amazing? These flexo electric mechanisms probably date back over 400 million years ago, originally giving organisms balance and equilibrium. Then they evolved into the hearing organs.
The Utah and Texas discovery could redirect research now, triggering more studies into flexo-electric mechanisms not only in the ear, but in other parts of the body as well.
E-mail: eyeates@ksl.com
