oh, the scientific articles #5

"MIT scientists have grown a human ear in tissue culture for the first time. Australian performance artist Stelarc collaborated with labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to produce an extra ear for himself. The ear was one-quarter scale, slightly larger than a bottle cap. The tissue taken from Stelarc was cultured in a rotating micro-gravity bioreactor while growing. MIT issued a statement that the extra ear could be considered 'a partial life form-partly constructed and partly grown.' The ear fits comfortably in the palm of the hand."(159).
This excerpt is one of many faux-Scientific articles that help move the story along by demonstrating the intensity of the scientific world. These articles help the reader understand how much people can do in science that they don't actually hear about. The understanding of the extremities science has reached is vital for the understanding and plot movement of the book. Although I'm already on page 159 and not much plot has occured, with little character development, there has been a lot of scientific information put out there which allows me to understand how CRAZY this world is, which refers back to my first-ever post for this book's quote. When will some plot start to show up? What role does this human ear development have to do with the orangutan? Is the orangutan even that important? -I feel like Jack Skellington trying to figure out the meaning of christmas..