Vertebrate hearing uses mechanosensory cells operating near an oscillatory instability. Physics reveals how this mechanism might have evolved from ‘chance and necessity’.
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Acknowledgements
A.J.H. is an Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute. P.M. acknowledges funding from Fondation Pour l’Audition (FPA RD-2020-7) and Labex Cell(n)Scale (ANR-11-LABX-0038 and ANR-10-IDEX-001-02).
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Hudspeth, A.J., Martin, P. Evolving critical oscillators for hearing. Nat Rev Phys 6, 210–211 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00672-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00672-2