/obj/item/weapon/book/manual/excavation name = "Out on the Dig" icon_state = "excavation" author = "Professor Patrick Mason, Curator of the Antiquities Museum on Ichar VII" title = "Out on the Dig" dat = {"

Contents

  1. Prepping the expedition
  2. Knowing your tools
  3. Finding the dig
  4. Analysing deposits
  5. Extracting your first find

Prepping the expedition

Every digsite I've been to, someone has forgotten something and I've never yet been to a dig that hasn't had me hiking to get to it - so gather your gear and get it to the site the first time. You learn quick that time is money, when you've got a shipful of bandits searching for you the next valley over, but don't be afraid to clear some space if there are any inconvenient boulders in the way.

Contents

Knowing your tools

Every archaeologist has a plethora of tools at their disposal, but here's the important ones:

Contents

Finding the dig

Wouldn't be an archaeologist without their dig, but everyone has to start somewhere. Here's a basic procedure I go through when cataloguing a new planet:

Contents

Analysing the contents of a dig

You've found some unusual strata, but it's not all peaches from here. No archaeologist ever managed to pull a bone from the earth without doing thorough chemical analysis on every two meters of rock face nearby.

Contents

Extracting your first find


Contents "} /obj/item/weapon/book/manual/mass_spectrometry name = "High Power Mass Spectrometry: A Comprehensive Guide" icon_state = "analysis" author = "Winton Rice, Chief Mass Spectrometry Technician at the Institute of Applied Sciences on Arcadia" title = "High powered mass spectrometry, a comprehensive guide" dat = {"

Contents

  1. A note on terms
  2. Analysis progression
  3. Heat management
  4. Ambient radiation

A note on terms


Contents

Analysis progression

Modern mass spectrometry requires constant attention from the diligent researcher in order to be successful. There are many different elements to juggle, and later chapters will delve into them. For the spectrometry assistant, the first thing you need to know is that the scanner wavelength is automatically calculated for you. Just tweak the settings and try to match it with the actual wavelength as closely as possible.

Contents

Seal integrity

In order to maintain sterile and environmentally static procedures, a special chamber is set up inside the spectrometer. It's protected by a proprietary vacuum seal produced by top tier industrial science. It will only last for a certain number of scans before failing outright, but it can be resealed through use of nanite paste. Unfortunately, it's susceptible to malforming under heat stress so exposing it to higher temperatures will cause it's operation life to drop significantly.

Contents

Heat management

The scanner relies on a gyro-rotational system that varies in speed and intensity. Over the course of an ordinary scan, the RPMs can change dramatically. Higher RPMs means greater heat generation, but is necessary for the ongoing continuation of the scan. To offset heat production, spectrometers have an inbuilt cooling system. Researchers can modify the flow rate of coolant to aid in dropping temperature as necessary, but are advised that frequent coolant replacements may be necessary depending on coolant purity. Water and substances such as cryoxadone are viable substitutes, but nowhere near as effective as pure coolant itself.

Contents

Ambient radiation

Researchers are warned that while operational, mass spectrometers emit period bursts of radiation and are thus advised to wear protective gear. In the event of radiation spikes, there is also a special shield that can be lowered to block emissions. Lowering this, however, will have the effect of blocking the scanner so use it sparingly.

Contents "} /obj/item/weapon/book/manual/anomaly_spectroscopy name = "Spectroscopy: Analysing the Anomalies of the Cosmos" icon_state = "anomaly" author = "Doctor Martin Boyle, Director Research at the Lower Hydrolian Sector Listening Array" title = "Spectroscopy: Analysing the Anomalies of the Cosmos" dat = {"
It's perhaps one of the most exciting times to be alive, with the recent breakthroughs in understanding and categorisation of things we may one day no longer call 'anomalies,' but rather 'infrequent or rare occurrences of certain celestial weather or phenomena.' Perhaps a little more long winded, but no less eloquent all the same! Why, look at the strides we're making in piercing the walls of bluespace or our steadily improving ability to clarify and stabilise subspace emissions; it's certainly an exciting time to be alive. For the moment, the Hydrolian hasn't seen two spatial anomalies alike but the day will come and it is soon, I can feel it. "} /obj/item/weapon/book/manual/materials_chemistry_analysis name = "Materials Analysis and the Chemical Implications" icon_state = "chemistry" author = "Jasper Pascal, Senior Lecturer in Materials Analysis at the University of Jol'Nar" title = "Materials Analysis and the Chemical Implications" dat = {"
In today's high tech research fields, leaps and bounds are being made every day. Whether it's great strides forward in our understanding of the physical universe or the operation of some fancy new piece of equipment, it seems like all the cool fields are producing new toys to play with, leaving doddery old fields such as materials analysis and chemistry relegated to the previous few centuries, when we were still learning the makeup and structure of the elements.

Well, when you're out there building the next gryo-whatsitron or isotope mobility thingummy, remember how the field of archaeology experienced a massive new rebirth following the excavations at Paranol IV and consider how all of the scientific greats will come crawling back to basic paradigms of natural philosophy when they discover a new element that defies classification. I defy you to classify it without reviving this once great field! "} /obj/item/weapon/book/manual/anomaly_testing name = "Anomalous Materials and Energies" icon_state = "triangulate" author = "Norman York, formerly of the Tyrolion Institute on Titan" title = "Anomalous Materials and Energies" dat = {"

Contents

  1. Foreword: Modern attitude towards anomalies
  2. Triangulating anomalous energy readings
  3. Harvesting and utilising anomalous energy signatures

Modern attitude towards anomalies

It's only when confronted with things we don't know, that we may push back our knowledge of the world around us. Nowhere is this more obvious than the vast and inscrutable mysterious of the cosmos that scholars from such august institutions as the Elysian Institute of the Sciences present formulas and hypotheses for every few decades.

Using our vast, telescopic array installations and deep space satellite networks, we are able to detect anomalous energy fields and formations in deep space, but are limited to those that are large enough to output energy that will stretch across light years worth of distance between stars.

While some sectors (such as the Hydrolian Rift and Keppel's Run) are replete with inexplicable energetic activity and unique phenomena found nowhere else in the galaxy, the majority of space is dry, barren and cold - and if past experience has told us anything, it is that there are always more things we are unable to explain.

Indeed, a great source of knowledge and technology has always been those who come before us, in the form of the multitudinous ancient alien precursors that have left scattered remnants of their great past all over settled (and unexplored) space.

It is from xenoarchaeologists, high energy materials researchers, and technology reconstruction authorities that we are able to theorise on the gifts these species have left behind, and in some cases even reverse engineer or rebuild the technology in question. My colleague, Doctor Raymond Ward of the Tyrolian Institute on Titan, has made great breakthroughs in a related field through his pioneering development of universally reflective materials capable of harvesting and 'bottling' up virtually any energy emissions yet encountered by spacefaring civilisations.

And yet, there are some amongst us who do not see the benefits of those who have come before us - indeed, some among them profess the opinion that there is no species that could possibly match humanity in it's achievements and knowledge, or simply that employing non-human technology is dangerous and unethical. Folly, say I. If it is their desire to throw onto the wayside the greatest achievements in the history of the galaxy, simply for preferment of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind, then they have no business in the establishment of science.
Contents

Triangulating anomalous energy readings

Strong energy emissions, when remaining constant from any one fixed location for millennia, can leave an 'imprint' or distinctive energy signature on other matter composites that are spatially fixed relative to the source.

By taking samples of such 'fixed' matter, we can apply complex analytics such as the modified Fourier Transform Procedure to reverse engineer the path of the energy, and determine the approximate distance and direction that the energy source is, relative to the sample's point in space. Modern portable devices can do all this purely by taking readings of local radiation.

A canny researcher can thusly analyse radiation at pre-chosen points strategically scattered around an area, and if there are any anomalous energy emissions in range of those points, combined the researcher can triangulate the source.
Contents

Harvesting and utilising anomalous energy signatures

As mentioned in the foreword, my colleague from the Tyrolian Institute on Saturn's moon of Titan, in the Sol System, Doctor Raymond Ward has made great strides in the area of harvesting and application of the energy emitted by anomalous phenomena from around the galaxy (although I profess I have not yet seen him venture further from his birthplace on Earth than the comfortable distance of the Sol Cis-Oort Satellite Sphere).

By employing a patented semi-phased alloy with unique and fascinating bluespace interaction properties, Ward's contraption is able to 'harvest' energy, store it and redirect it later at will (with appropriate electronic mechanisms, of course). Although he professes to see or desire no commercial or material gain for the application and use of said energy once it is harvested, there are no doubt myriad ways we can come to benefit from such things beyond mere research, such as the reconstruction of torn cartilaginous tissue that a peculiar radiation from an amphibious species on Brachis IV was found to emit.
Contents "} /obj/item/weapon/book/manual/stasis name = "Cellular Suspension, the New Cryogenics?" icon_state = "stasis" author = "Elvin Schmidt" title = "Cellular Suspension, the New Cryogenics?" dat = {"

Contents

  1. Foreword: A replacement for cryosleep?
  2. The breakthrough
  3. Applying this new principle

Foreword: A replacement for cryosleep?

The development of rudimentary cryofreezing in the 20th and 21st centuries was hailed as a crank science by some, but many early visionaries recognised the potential it had to change the way we approach so many fields, such as medicine, therapeutics, and space travel. It was breakthroughs in the field in the 22nd and later centuries that turned the procedure from science fiction to science fact, however. Since then, cryogenics has become a hallmark of modern science, and regarded as one of the great achievements of our era. As with all sciences however, they have their time and are superseded by newer technological miracles when it is over.
Contents

The breakthrough

It was in examining the effects of decelerated, bluespace, high energy particles when transphased through bluespace that the effects where primarily noticed. Due to exigent properties of that dimension, transphasing those particles capable of existing in bluespace with high stability levels has the effect of bringing some of those effects into realspace. Examining the Hoffman emissions in particular, it was discovered that they exhibited a-entropic behaviour, and in what is now termed the 'Effete Hoffman Principle,' it was found that metastabilising the Hoffman radiation resulted in the effect being applied across other physical interactions, in particular forces and reactions.
Contents

Applying this new principle

When combined with an appropriate energy-effect replicate for cryogenics (slowing down biological activity, thus stabilising the organics), the effect is effectively identical to cryogenics, and while it consumes vastly more power and requires extremely complex equipment, it's (for all intents and purposes) superior to cryogenics, all that remains is to 'commercialise' the process by enabling cheaper development and mass production.
The Effete Hoffman Principle can be tweak-combined with other effects however, for different purposes. A division of PMC Research initially developed the application in prisons as a literal 'suspension field' where convicts are held immobile in the air, and the use quickly spread to numerous other areas.

By examining the material resonance properties of certain strong waveforms when combined with Hoffman radiation, an effect was produced able to reverse energy transferral through matter, and to slow the effects of gravity. When combined with energy repulse technology, the triple effects compound themselves into a much stronger field, although all three components do slightly different things. High energy researchers assure me of the following key points:
As an interesting aside, a carbon waveform was chosen for the field in prison suspension fields, due to it's resonance with organic matter.
Contents "}