I'd give my left flipper for a Q-tip

Apparently blue whales's ear wax keeps building up all life long. Light wax during feeding season, dark when migrating. But Trumble and Usenko realized that the oils might preserve oil-soluble hormones--like testosterone--and a detailed analysis could tell how long it took the whale to reach sexual maturity. And what sorts of pollutants were in the water.

I wonder how far back these things have been preserved. Whales sample a fair bit of ocean, and you could get a little pollution history if you could link samples together and go back far enough. Cool.

I'd never given whale earwax any thought at all--just assumed that the eardrum was protected and that was that. That it build up instead of migrating out seems odd, but I guess it works OK.