Personally I'm moving away from a noisy neighborhood but I wonder whether this couldn't be marketed as a kind of sleeping pill for those in residential areas which ill-conceived traffic regulations have turned into major routes?

Simply turning the music down a little, and developing a pill that sensitises the ears of people who really want their hearing zapped?

...already have a more advanced ability genetically encoded into their DNA, they selectively activate it when parents / teachers / authority figures are talking to them?

There's no mention of how long the pill's effects last, in fact, it doesn't mention if the treated mice ever had normal hearing again or if they were permanently half deaf! So, do they last an hour? A day? Or forever?

And couldn't a reverse drug be used to turn up the hearing of those with poor hearing?

Or, turn down the music a bit and anyone who wants to be deafened and unable to hold a conversation can take the reverse pill !!!

I'll stick to my flesh coloured ear plugs that no one ever notices in the clubs.

...just turn the volume down to a level that doesn't damage people's hearing?

And if we're being really anal (and as technical people it's our duty) the time over which the reading was taken should also be given. 110dB(A)SPL Leq over 5 hours is a hell of a lot louder than a peak reading of the same number.

@ Steve Lubman - $10.00 doesn't buy you 'good' musicians earplugs. Whilst the cheap ones will attenuate the overall level acceptably, you have to spend a significant amount more than that to get anything that will attenuate all frequencies equally, which is what a musician would want. I agree the cheap ones are fine for the general public wanting to protect their hearing though (personally when I'm listening to music loud enough to require plugs, I want to hear the music as it was originally intended, not a muffled mess. Although I am a nerd when it comes to these matters)

The same is true of the general pedantry scale, a logarithmic measure which converts to the kilo wan. Suffice to say PeD(Ov) has been surpassed.

Firstly, the drug only seems to reduce the perception of noise. Surely this could result in someone listening to louder music for longer and so cause MORE physical damage.

Secondly, if you insist on going to one of these places - Grumpy old man mode engaged - then surely it is FOR the loud music, so why would you want to turn it down? If you don't want to listen to loud music, then why would you go to a place whose whole existence is based around aural assault.

And, as mentioned by many above, if you do HAVE to be exposed to loud music (as I was way back when I was keeping it real, living the dream, playing in a band to packed-out houses of as many as 10 people) then you just wear proper, musicians ear plugs (I like the etymotic research ones).

I'm used to solutions looking for a problem but these guys seem to have identified a non-existent problem and have then produced a solution that wouldn't work. Genius!

O.K. my hearing's knackered anyway but when I want loud music I go to places where there's loud music. I wouldn't see the point in dropping a couple of pills to make things quieter.

(If I was working there then it'd be a case of never without earplugs)

Earplug technology has allowed us to buy them for different ranges of bandwidth and level filtering and as everyone's ears work differently would a pill just be like stuffing cotton wool in yer ears?

Why not just make the retards that think loud music *promotes* socialising turn it DOWN?

If you want it louder, they can give out wireless headsets or something. I don't know anyone that complains it's too quiet. Apart from in horror films. Too damn quiet..

SAM offered "I want to hear the music as it was originally intended, not a muffled mess."

Some artists / clubs seem to prefer the sound of eardrums slamming up against the stops. Been there, done that, won't ever allow that to occur again.

The $10.00 musicians earplugs are not perfect, but as a photographer who spends significant time pressed up against the stage monitors craning for a shot, I have to say that they are indispensable and far superior to the foamy plugs you pick up at the hardware store that are designed to protect you from the growl of power tools etc.

Always willing to look at something better. Have you any suggestions?

If the drug was able to mutate the mice into losing aural sensitivity, how does this provide a net gain? Pressumably, if your aural sensitivity is affected, you won't hear well at normal levels. So what is the benefit of a drug that reduces sensitivity preemptively in order to prevent damage?

Might as well just go to the club. At least you may get lucky there, even if you can't hear sh*t the next morning.

-dZ.

I see a few other people here (no pun intended) suffer from tinnitus. I've had it for years now, bloody nuisance...

A couple of years ago I was referred to the audiology dept of Charing X Hospital (London) where I tried out some new in-ear devices that treat tinnitus by feeding back the specific frequencies in to your ear at a low level to train your aural networks to ignore it. It was getting better but the devices were very fragile and kept breaking. (The audiologist said the NHS had complained but the manufacturers weren't interested in fixing the problem).

Since then there's been the release of a software-based solution which I'm about to try. It's had some very good reviews. It also explains in detail the current knowledge about it.

Sorry for slightly off-topic comment, but it is relevant, IMHO.

http://www.vavsoft.com/

"Bit more 4k please"

"I didn't realise that pharmaceutical companies had to ensure that their prescription drugs worked in combination with illegal drugs?"

Well, Viagra specifically lists Amyl Nitrate, aka Poppers, as a contraindication. Not that Amyl is illegal but it's definitely recreational (as, I suspect in this context, is Viagra). Give Pfizer credit, they do know their target audience.

about stupidly loud music (if the sound system can cope with it). I'd rather have the cure thanks.

I second that. :-(

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

:-(

... to put the SPEAKERS into some kind of enclosure that reduces the amount of sound they give out?

The speaker has been put in an enclosure already, one that is designed to make it louder, or fill a space with sound, or resonate at particular frequencies to make more efficient use of the power being put into it.

May as well go to a club and stand outside, it sounds quieter there.