“We’re just trying to tweak the mammalian system a little bit to do what a lot of other species do naturally.” Those are the words of Lloyd Klickstein of Novartis, the Swiss drug company collaborating with scientists at the University of Kansas Medical Center who will soon begin injecting deaf study subjects with a “harmless virus containing a gene that should trigger the regrowth of the sensory receptors in the ear” and give them the ability to hear. This story is a philosophical goldmine. (via Ben Hale and Teresa Blankmeyer Burke)