Volume Control
Hearing in a Deafening World
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- $75.00
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- $75.00
Descripción editorial
The surprising science of hearing and the remarkable technologies that can help us hear better
Our sense of hearing makes it easy to connect with the world and the people around us. The human system for processing sound is a biological marvel, an intricate assembly of delicate membranes, bones, receptor cells, and neurons. Yet many people take their ears for granted, abusing them with loud restaurants, rock concerts, and Q-tips. And then, eventually, most of us start to go deaf.
Millions of Americans suffer from hearing loss. Faced with the cost and stigma of hearing aids, the natural human tendency is to do nothing and hope for the best, usually while pretending that nothing is wrong. In Volume Control, David Owen argues this inaction comes with a huge social cost. He demystifies the science of hearing while encouraging readers to get the treatment they need for hearing loss and protect the hearing they still have.
Hearing aids are rapidly improving and becoming more versatile. Inexpensive high-tech substitutes are increasingly available, making it possible for more of us to boost our weakening ears without bankrupting ourselves. Relatively soon, physicians may be able to reverse losses that have always been considered irreversible. Even the insistent buzz of tinnitus may soon yield to relatively simple treatments and techniques. With wit and clarity, Owen explores the incredible possibilities of technologically assisted hearing. And he proves that ears, whether they're working or not, are endlessly interesting.
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Owen (Where the Water Goes), a New Yorker staff writer, wrestles with the complexities of the human ear in this informative extended essay on aural perception. Owen, who suffers from tinnitus, a constant ringing in the ears, describes in detail his experience and also touches on other conditions, such as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, a balance problem that occurs when the wrong hair cells in the ear are stimulated, and otosclerosis, which occurs when bones in the middle ear fuse. As part of his research, he is fitted for a pair of hearing aids and visits Starkey Hearing Technologies in Eden Prairie, Minn., to witness the device in production. Owen also acquaints himself with advances such as cochlear implants, which directly stimulate fibers in the auditory nerves and thus create new stimuli for the brain to process as sound. Readers may object that topics such as the stigma of deafness and the deaf community don't receive much attention. Otherwise, in exploring a bodily mechanism "so remarkably small and complex and hard to observe that scientists still don't completely understand how all of its components work," Owen delivers an illuminating account of human hearing.
