Great word, huh – No, I didn’t make it up, the name is real, but what’s really great is that doing proper research brings you extra gifts, it throws into the open these wonderful little details that capture the imagination more than the main theme does – so, in the case of a hydroxyapatite implant (a prosthetic eye), the name is wonderful, but the real gem for me is the fact that the material comes from reef coral, giving you that little extra depth of information that you can relate to, something that brings a sense of wonder from outside your normal sphere of existence (assuming you’re not an engineer of surgical gadgets and/or prostheses).

The material from reef coral, coated with sclera to make it smooth, is perfect for being both lightweight and porous, it means the muscles, blood vessels and nerves can attach to it, making it permanently set in place and able to move naturally. It becomes, in effect, part of the body. I love that! How ingenious the human animal is!

It’s the detail that does it. I do love that sort of accurate detail in a book, the things that lift the story right out of the pages and brings it to life. This is where research trumps made up stuff every time. Made up stuff doesn’t bring forward this sort of item detail (I’m not talking plot here, which, of course, can be brilliantly detailed and complex).

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