Popular Science - USA (2019-10)

as told to Donavyn Coffey

STEPHEN TRUMBLE, MARINE BIOLOGIST
AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

PLUGGED IN

the secret

life of

earwax

A few years ago, I was having coffee with
an environmental chemist. I happened to
mention an ancient method for determin-
ing a whale’s age: More than a century ago, whalers
learned to examine the creatures’ earwax, which
builds up over the years and congeals into a sticky
plug. If you extract it from a deceased ani mal and
cut the cylinder in half lengthwise, you’ll see light and
dark rings. Researchers think the light bands could
be from a buildup of lipids during summer feasting,
while the dark ones come from winter fasting. Count

the rings, and you can estimate the animal’s age.

Then an idea came to us: The circles give clues about

nutrition, so what else could they reveal?

Fortunately, the Smithsonian had nearly 1,000

whale earplugs collected over the past century. We

found traces of DDT in wax from the 1960s and mys-

terious flame retardants in younger specimens.

Human activities—noise, whaling, war, and warming

waters— also caused spikes in cortisol, a stress hor-

mone. These icky marine relics make it clear we have

a lasting impact on all animals in the sea.

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