Interesting Facts

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head? We call that kind of song an earworm (borrowed from the German word ‘ohrwurm'). Well according to research from the University of Reading chewing gum can get it out. (Their study found that people who chewed gum after hearing catchy songs thought less often about the song and it reduced the amount the song went round and round in their head. The study, "Want to block earworms from conscious awareness? B(u)y gum!" was published in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. I wonder who financed the research?) Source

Cats have 32 muscles in each ear. (This allows them to rotate their ears for directional hearing, and to move each ear independently of the other, as well as lay them down flat to warn us they are in a bad mood. Humans only have 3 muscles in each ear, but some people can wiggle their ears. Can you? PS - I can't, even though my mum could.) #caturday  ;)

4 million Germans suffer from tinnitus. (Tinnitus is often caused by continuing noise or an acoustic shock, such as an explosion. According to the German Tinnitus League, another major cause is stress. I suffer from this condition, and I live in Germany, but I'm not German, so I don't know if they included me in these statistics, so maybe 4 million and 1 people in Germany suffer from tinnitus.)

Leeches are used as a treatment for hematoma auris, cauliflower ears. (After a sharp blow, a large blood clot can develop under the skin and block the flow of blood to the cartilage, that gives the ear its peculiar cauliflower shape. The leeches suck out the fluid, but if the cartilage dies, the ear shrivels and becomes lumpy. So further treatment is required.)