1. How it gets out
The cells inside the ear canal are unique in the human body - they migrate. "You could put an ink dot on the eardrum and watch it move over a few weeks and it would be 'carried out' by the movement of the cells." according to Prof Shakeel Saeed at London's Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear hospital.
If this didn't happen the mini cul-de-sac of the ear canal would soon fill up with dead cells created by the natural process of skin shedding.
This movement also propels the wax - produced by the modified sweat glands which line the ear canal - towards the outside. It's thought that normal movements of the jaw - through eating and talking - assist with this movement.
Prof Saeed has noticed that ear wax does sometimes get darker as we age - and that men whose ears get noticeably hairier as they age sometimes find that the wax can't escape through this jungle of hair.
2. It has anti-microbial properties
Ear wax contains waxy oils but much of it is made up of keratinocytes - dead skin cells. The rest of cerumen - to give it its technical name - is a mixture of substances.
Between 1,000 to 2,000 glands produce anti-microbial peptides - whilst sebaceous glands close to hair cells add into the mix alcohols, an oily substance called squalene, cholesterol and triglyceride.
The production of earwax doesn't vary much between men and women. young or old - but in one small study its triglyceride content decreased from November to July.
Cerumen also contains lysozyme, an antibacterial enzyme capable of destroying bacterial cell walls. Other researchers are less convinced and claim that it is the perfect medium in which bacteria can grow.