Post #3732165
2026-07-10 19:32 UTC
I just flipped open my copy of "The Blue Machine" by Helen Czerski and the first sentence that fell under my eye was
“It's not clear why whales should have earwax at all.”
The whole book is like that. It's marvelous.
https://bookshop.org/a/93187/9781324086345
Replies (1)
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@mjd@mathstodon.xyz 2026-07-10 20:05
I wonder if it really isn't clear why whales should have ear wax. I think the reason why humans have ear wax is: it prevents small insects from building nests in our ears. Any insect that tries will get stuck in the wax, die, and are eventually be ejected. Why wouldn't the same advantage accrue to whales? What else is there to prevent a whale's ear canals from being colonized by barnacles? But the ear wax solution seems like it would work.