Science and Technology, or S&T, is the largest and probably best-known division of Project Utopia.
Administration[]
Director Evard "Doc" Burghalter is the head of the Science and Technology division. He was appointed to his position in 2003 by Justin J. Laragione when his predecessor, Dr. Bodil Sutherland died suddenly in a car crash. Dr. Bergalter is a native of Germany. He is a large, jovial 47 year old man. He has a wife and three daughters. He also raises and breeds hunting terriers in his spare time.
Dr. Henri Mazarin and Dr. Farah Rashoud are not part of the S&T administration, but they nevertheless wield considerable clout in the department.
Environmental Division[]
- Biological Sciences: The largest part of S&T is devoted to nova biology. There are rigid protocols in place to keep the "samples" safe (and keep everyone else safe from the samples, on occasion). Together with Nova Medicine and Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, it forms the largest think-tank on nova biology, and human biology in general, in the world.
- Environmental Sciences: This section employs the wide range of experts needed to ecological engineering projects like Operation Eden. It is divided into several subsections based on specialty. Dr. Spencer "Antaeus" Balmer is the assistant director of this section, as it was his dream of a world without pollution that inspired its formation.
Medical Division[]
- Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences: Although not as well-funded or well-known as the Triton Foundation, C&PS does solid work in developing new drugs based on the study of nova physiology or derived from nova powers, as well as understanding how standard drugs affect novas.
- Eruption Research Project: A pet project of Dr. Mazarin and Rashoud, this project aims to understand what exactly causes a nova to erupt and what happens during the eruption process. They hope to someday monitor an entire eruption from beginning to end with a suite of highly sensitive equipment, though they have yet to successfully predict one before it happens.
- Nova Medicine: This section deals with both the insights and advancements novas can offer to the medical field, and the practical problems associated with providing medical treatment to novas.
- Recruitment: Since dealing with newly-erupted novas often involves extensive testing, Recruitment was originally placed within S&T, and there has been heavy internal resistance to any reorganization. Recruitment oversees Rashoud Facilities around the world and employs Intervention Teams to rush to a site of a new eruption, calming the new nova and protecting them while they come to terms with their powers.
Hardtech Division[]
- Materials Engineering: This section is devoted to developing new materials and applications for those materials based on nova powers, which are then marketed to one of Utopia's various commercial subsidiaries. Discoveries so far include Valamid, a fiber that makes lighter and more effective bulletproof vests; ultralight ceramics; advanced radiation shielding; and Vella, a paper substitute that contains no wood pulp.
- Space Sciences: When it became clear that certain novas were able to operate effectively in space without protective equipment, Project Utopia scrambled to get into the new space race. They put another person on the Moon, began developing a continually-manned space station, and tried repeatedly to come to an arrangement with the Daedelus League after that group revealed they'd been to the Jovian moons on one of their "outings."
- Technological Regulation: In the wake of the Sao Paolo disaster in 2005, Project Utopia was granted the power to monitor, regulate and even ban certain technologies that they deemed too dangerous for dissemination. This department is one of the most hated within Utopia, by both researchers who feel stifled and corporations who feel Utopia has a conflict of interest, given its corporate subsidiaries in the tech sector. The task before TechReg is monumental, and so far they have not managed to meet the challenge; the global trade in blacktech is thriving.
References[]
- TU: Aberrant: Project Utopia, p. 44-54