Doctors explain the science behind 'eargasms,' or why sticking things in your ear feels so good

Back in the 1920s, a man named Leo Gerstenzang observed his wife as she gave their baby a bath. To clean the child's ears, she would stick cotton balls on each end of a toothpick. It worked great, but Gerstenzang was concerned about the sharp ends—one slip could be extremely dangerous. So, he worked up a safer version, spending the next several years designing a machine that could make and package cotton swabs "never touched by human hands."He called them "Baby Betty Gays," after his daughter, and then just "Baby Gays." Later, he developed the idea for the brand name "Q-Tips". The product c...