It can also lead to infections, perforated eardrums, compacted earwax and tinnitus.

David Plotz, CEO of Atlas Obscura One of my cats eats earwax.

The ear cat snuggles in, smearing earwax all over Irene's cat collection.

I never thought I'd use that word in connection with earwax.

Passing earwax-tainted earbuds between friends is nobody's favorite way to share iPod tunes.

Human earwax, on the other hand, is not nearly as interesting.

A reputation for raw power, earwax-melting noise, and razor-edged looks.

But some suspect that earwax also functions as an antibiotic.

An unappetising combination of cotton wool, plastic and earwax resting innocently on the table.

According to a study, the earpieces push the earwax further into the ear canal.

There is one trait known to be dictated by a single gene though: earwax type.

She doesn't even realize the earwax greasing across her fingers when she pets its back.

Does the ear candle remove earwax from your ears?

However, the constituent of earwax that is susceptible to transport by MRP8 has not been identified.

And unfortunately for both me and him, I've apparently inherited earwax genes from my Irish-Scottish father.

This gene doesn't just define our earwax type.