SCIENTIST: RESEARCH

A Research Scientist is a professional inquirer alter knowledge. In the context of Space Opera, 'science' includes a number of fields formally classed as the 'arts,' such as history, for these fields have been reorganized on a scientific basis and have a precision and accuracy of approach which is unknown today. Scientists have considerable technical expertise, for they must work with equipment of a highly specialized and complex type in many instances, but their 'Tech' knowledge is more theoretical than practical. Their strength is in their ability to perform research and analysis, to discover required information and to solve problems faced by him in both the pursuit of knowledge and the ongoing action of rote-play. Scientists of superior calibre will become knowledgeable in a wide range of scientific fields and can be counted on to deliver the 'answer' if anyone can. The Science Officer aboard a StarShip, for instance, is the person who conducts detailed planetary surveys and analyses, assesses the cultural patterns of a new race, 'cracks' hitherto unknown alien languages, or solves the problem of escaping from a spatial anomaly of a type previously unencountered.