During a Q&A with scientists working on treatments for hearing loss, a journalist heard about the sensory receptors known as "hair cells" that help us hear.
If they deteriorate, hearing disappears.
The journalist (no, not me) wondered if Rogaine could help people recover these temperamental hair cells.
In a word, no. There's a linguistic misunderstanding at work, explained Stefan Heller of Stanford University.
"These sensory cells have little hairs…(but) the hairs on your head are very different. It's a completely different system."
Too bad. For a second there, it seemed like the journalist might really have been onto something.
