I hear like an 85-year-old man, but I am not alone. Twenty-five million Americans are already affected by hearing loss (Hearing lost statistics), and this staggering number is expected to double by 2050 (qtd. in Schmid), especially considering how many students are currently damaging their ears by the combination of loud music and earphones. What they do not realize is that sound has a physical force that damages the stereocilia, the delicate hair cells in the cochlea that pick up vibrations. Once broken, those cells do not regenerate. The vast majority of people can expect hearing damage as they age. Others, like me, have damage from ototoxins; life-saving drugs like the ones that saved my life as a premature infant can cause unfortunate hearing impairment. That is the personal problem that led to my two-year science project, Do You =ear What I =ear?, which explores the revolutionary concept of lowering sounds in pitch rather than simply making them louder. Current hearing aid technology is still based on increasing the volume; however, I know from personal experience that hearing aids really do not work well…

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