Shortly before his death in August 2025, A. James Hudspeth and his team in the Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience at The Rockefeller University achieved a groundbreaking technological advancement: the ability to keep a tiny sliver of the cochlea alive and functional outside of the body for the first time. Their new device allowed them to capture the live biomechanics of the cochlea's remarkable auditory powers, including exceptional sensitivity, sharp frequency tuning, and the ability to encode a broad range of sound intensities.