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Research and development is the most important (and arguably most boring) part of the science department. Those tasked with R&D are responsible for unlocking different technologies to help the station run better by unlocking different tools, machinery, and weapons. They are also often tasked with completing experiments to reduce the cost of said technologies, and their proximity to the front desk makes them the first person the crew asks for upgrades, power cells, and other science gadgets.

The art of pressing buttons and scanning walls

The R&D console

Located behind the front desk of the science department, the main research console comes pre-loaded with the NT science hub. This program (which you can download onto your PDA for convenient acces), allows you to do the main part of R&D; spending (mostly) automatically generated points to unlock new nodes in the techweb, which allow for the construction of specific items, as well as unlocking further nodes. Conveniently placed next to the console are science lathe and circuit imprinter, which can print an ever increasing variety stuff.

Experiments and discounts

One thing that you might immediately notice when you open the techweb is that a lot of nodes have discounts, these are unlocked by doing experiments with an Experi-Scanner. Your scanner will show you a list of available experiments and what each one entails, most of which can be divided into a few rough categories.

Materials

These experiments are the most straight-forward, construct a wall, toilet, or table from a material, and scan it a number of times. Each object can only be scanned once, but can simply be re-constructed to be scanned again. Some of these experiments will require you to handle hazardous materials; Plasma walls will become a raging inferno if you try to weld them apart, and uranium toilets might give your butt a nasty burn and radiation sickness if you sit on them.

Lathe Upgrades

These expermints will require you to go around to each department and upgrade each lathe, and then scan them. This has the added effect of upgrading each of the department's lathes, making them more efficient.

Misc machinery

Most experiments will have you scan random machinery, this can be done by going to whatever department the machines are located in, but it is often much easier and faster to simply construct the machines yourself. Remember that you can reconstruct the same machine multiple times to finish this, instead of having to make 4 BEPIS chambers or whatnot. You can also create an undefined circuit imprinter alongside your science one to gain acces to circuit boards from other departments.

Ordnance

These experiments are usually done by a dedicated Toxins scientist, see (Guide_to_toxins)