Name	ear
Caption	Human (external) ear

The ear is the anatomical organ that detects sound. It not only acts as a receiver for sound, but also plays a major role in the sense of balance and body position. The ear is part of the auditory system.

The word "ear" may be used correctly to describe the entire organ or just the visible portion. In most mammals, the visible ear is a flap of tissue that is also called the pinna and is the first of many steps in hearing. In people, the pinna is often called the auricle. Vertebrates have a pair of ears, placed symmetrically on opposite sides of the head. This arrangement aids in the ability to localize sound sources.

Introduction to ears and hearing

Audition is the scientific name for the sense of sound. Sound is a form of energy that moves through air, water, and other matter, in waves of pressure. Sound is the means of auditory communication, including frog calls, bird songs and spoken language. Although the ear is the vertebrate sense organ that recognizes sound, it is the brain and central nervous system that "hears". Sound waves are perceived by the brain through the firing of nerve cells in the auditory portion of the central nervous system. The ear changes sound pressure waves from the outside world into a signal of nerve impulses sent to the brain.

The outer part of the ear collects sound. That sound pressure is amplified through the middle portion of the ear and, in land animals, passed from the medium of air into a liquid medium. The change from air to liquid occurs because air surrounds the head and is contained in the ear canal and middle ear, but not in the inner ear. The inner ear is hollow, embedded in the temporal bone, the densest bone of the body. The hollow channels of the inner ear are filled with liquid, and contain a sensory epithelium that is studded with hair cells. The microscopic "hairs" of these cells are structural protein filaments that project out into the fluid. The hair cells are mechanoreceptors that release a chemical neurotransmitter when stimulated. Sound waves moving through fluid push the filaments; if the filaments bend over enough it causes the hair cells to fire. In this way sound waves are transformed into nerve impulses. In vision, the rods and cones of the retina play a similar role with light as the hair cells do with sound. The nerve impulses travel from the left and right ears through the eighth cranial nerve to both sides of the brain stem and up to the portion of the cerebral cortex dedicated to sound. This auditory part of the cerebral cortex is in the temporal lobe.

The part of the ear that is dedicated to sensing balance and position also sends impulses through the eighth cranial nerve, the VIIIth nerve's Vestibular Portion. Those impulses are sent to the vestibular portion of the central nervous system. The human ear can generally hear sounds with frequencies between 20 Hz and 20 kHz (the audio range). Although the sensation of hearing requires an intact and functioning auditory portion of the central nervous system as well as a working ear, human deafness (extreme insensitivity to sound) most commonly occurs because of abnormalities of the inner ear, rather than the nerves or tracts of the central auditory system.

Invertebrate hearing organs

Only vertebrate animals have ears, although many invertebrates are able to detect sound using other kinds of sense organs. In insects, tympanal organs are used to hear distant sounds. They are not confined to the head, but can occur in different locations depending on the group of insects.

The tympanal organs of some insects are extremely sensitive, offering acute hearing beyond that of most other animals. The female cricket fly Ormia ochracea has a tympanal organs on each side of her abdomen. They are connected by a thin bridge of exoskeleton and they function like a tiny pair of ear drums, but because they are linked, they provide acute directional information. The fly uses her "ears" to detect the call of her host, a male cricket. Depending on where the song of the cricket is coming from the fly's hearing organs will reverberate at slightly different frequencies. This difference may be as little as 50 billionths of a second, but it is enough to allow the fly to home in directly on a singing male cricket and parasitize it.

Simpler structures allow arthropods to detect near field sounds. Spiders and cockroaches, for example, have hairs on their legs which are used for detecting sound. Caterpillars may also have hairs on their body that perceive vibrations and allow them to respond to the sound.

See also

References

External links

Protein behind hearing

3D Ear page

Details of various ear problems

Ear wiggling mechanism unmasked

Cotton swabs can pose serious health risk: coroner from ctv.ca

Radiology of the Ear Canal from MedPix

Category:Ear Category:Sensory organs Category:Auditory system Category:Head and neck

Name	Mike Swick
Other names	Quick
Birth place	Houston, Texas, United States
Nationality	American
Height
Weight
Weight class	170 (2008–present) 185
Style	Kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling
Fighting out of	San Jose, California
Team	American Kickboxing Academy
Years active	1998–present (MMA)
Mma win	14
Mma kowin	7
Mma subwin	3
Mma loss	4
Mma draw	0
Sherdog	5199

Mike Swick (born June 19, 1979) is an American mixed martial artist currently competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a welterweight. He trains at American Kickboxing Academy.

Mixed martial arts career

Early career

Swick began his professional career in smaller shows, including early events of World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC). He amassed a record of 5–0 before challenging Chris Leben for the WEC Middleweight Championship. He lost the fight by knockout in 45 seconds in the second round.

The Ultimate Fighter

After his first professional loss, Swick entered the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, a reality television series produced by the UFC. Swick participated as a light heavyweight on Randy Couture's team. Chris Leben also participated as Swick's teammate. Leben insisted on talking about his victory over Swick, which irritated him. Swick's first fight in the show came during the semi-finals. He faced Stephan Bonnar, but was defeated by triangle armbar at 4:55 of the first round, eliminating him from the show.

At The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale, Swick defeated Alex Schoenauer by knockout just 20 seconds into the first round, earning the nickname "Quick" from UFC announcer Mike Goldberg. Though he had lost the show, Swick signed a contract with the UFC.

In the UFC

Swick lived up to his nickname with several quick stoppages in his subsequent fights. At UFC Ultimate Fight Night Swick stopped Gideon Ray by technical knockout in just 22 seconds. He followed up with two first-round guillotine choke submissions over Steve Vigneault and Joe Riggs at UFC 58 and UFC 60 respectively. Swick jokingly called the move his "Swick-otine". At UFC 63 Swick faced former title challenger David Loiseau and earned a unanimous decision victory. He suffered ligament damage to his hand during the fight.

Swick's first UFC defeat came at UFC 69, losing by unanimous decision to Japanese middleweight Yushin Okami. He had Okami noticeably rattled toward the end of the second round with a flurry of punches, but ultimately succumbed to Okami's superior wrestling and physical presence, as he was taken down comfortably and suffered an onslaught of ground and pound for the majority of the fight. Chris Leben was then asked to fight a rematch with Swick at UFC Fight Night 11, but Leben turned down the fight, later claiming that his management turned down the fight without his knowledge. Swick was then scheduled to fight Jonathan Goulet, but withdrew from the fight due to a rib injury.

Drop to welterweight

Swick dropped down to welterweight and headlined UFC Fight Night 12 against Josh Burkman, winning by majority decision.

External links

Official site

UFC Profile

Mike Swick Interview

Mike's Myspace

MMA Punk Interview with Mike "Quick" Swick

Category:1979 births Category:American mixed martial artists Category:Mixed martial artists from Texas Category:Living people Category:Lightweight mixed martial artists Category:Welterweight mixed martial artists Category:Middleweight mixed martial artists Category:American practitioners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Name	Craig Mack
Background	solo_singer
Alias
Born	May 10, 1971Trenton, New Jersey
Origin	Brentwood, Long Island, New York, United States
Genre	Hip Hop
Years active	1988–2008
Label	Bad Boy RecordsStreet Life RecordsStereo Nasty Records
Associated acts	The Notorious B.I.G.

Craig Mack (born May 10, 1971) is an American Grammy nominated rapper who gained fame on Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Entertainment record label in the 1990s. Although his first single was released under the name MC EZ in 1988, he is best known for his 1994 hit single "Flava In Ya Ear", which was released under his real name. The remix of the single was the breakout appearance of The Notorious B.I.G., as well as one of the first solo appearances by Busta Rhymes. The success of The Notorious B.I.G.'s debut album Ready To Die overshadowed Mack's early success on the Bad Boy label. Although Puff Daddy mentioned in a 1994 interview on MTV's "Yo! MTV Raps" that he was working with Mack on his sophomore album, which was to be released sometime in January the following year, this proved to not be the case. Present at the interview (which also included Christopher "B.I.G" Wallace), Mack himself appeared puzzled by the statement. As of September 1, 2008, he is no longer on Stereo Nasty Records.

Discography

Albums

{|class="wikitable" |- !rowspan="2"| Year !rowspan="2"| Title !colspan="2"| Chart positions !rowspan="2"| Certifications(sales thresholds) |- ! U.S. ! U.S. R&B; |- |1994 |Project: Funk da World

Released: September 20, 1994

Label: Bad Boy

|align="center"|21 |align="center"|6 |

US: Gold

|- |1997 |

Released: June 24, 1997

Label: Street Life

|align="center"|46 |align="center"|17 |}

Singles

{|class="wikitable" !rowspan="2"|Year !rowspan="2"|Single !colspan="3"|Charts !rowspan="2"|Album |- !width="30"|U.S. !width="30"|U.S. R&B; !width="30"|U.S. Rap |- |align="center" rowspan="2"|1994 |align="left"|"Flava In Ya Ear" |align="center"|9 |align="center"|4 |align="center"|1 |align="left" rowspan="2"|Project: Funk Da World |- |align="left"|"Get Down" |align="center"|38 |align="center"|17 |align="center"|2 |- |align="center" rowspan=1|1997 |align="left"|"What I Need" |align="center"|- |align="center"|55 |align="center"|16 |align="left" rowspan="1"|Operation: Get Down |- |}

Collaborations

Mack has been featured on numerous original and remixed tracks, including Sista's "It's Alright" (Sista was female group featuring Missy Elliott), which was featured on the 1995 soundtrack for motion picture Dangerous Minds, as well as Brownstone's "If you Love Me - Remix", among many others.

References

Category:African American rappers Category:1971 births Category:Living people Category:People from Trenton, New Jersey Category:Rappers from Long Island Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:Bad Boy Records artists Category:Brentwood High School (Brentwood, New York) people