Science! (Classic)

Despite the name Classic's Science! is not the same as the 4e Wildcard Skill of that name.
In Classic, Science! required:
* Research skill at 13+
* A minimum of two skills (2 points in each, or 4 total) in a hard or soft science (but not from liberal arts)This included but was not limited to Agronomy, Alchemy, Anthropology, Archaeology, Astrogation (if applicable), Astronomy, Biochemistry, Botany, Chemistry, Computer Programming, Diagnosis, Ecology, Economics, Electronics, Engineer, Forensics, Genetics, Geology, Linguistics, Mathematics, Metallurgy, Meteorology, Naturalist, Nuclear Physics, Physician, Physics, Physiology, Psychology, Surgery, Veterinary, Weird Science, and Zoology 
* To be no higher then -2 of the lowest prerequisite science skill."For example, if your prerequisite skills are Biochemistry-16 and Botany-14, you cannot take Science! at more than 12." (Compendium I pg 158)
More over the Compendium is totally mum on how TL penalties factor into this though logically it should effect the relative prerequisite science skill reducing this version of Science! substantially which does not happen with the 4e version.
==Comment==
Science has an interesting set up.
First as Burke points out "The knowledge acquired through the use of _any_ structure is selective... Scientific knowledge, in sum, is not necessarily the clearest representation of what reality is; it is the artifact of each structure and its tool." (Burke 1985:337). Gary Zurav says much the same thing in _The Dancing Wu Li Masters_ in chapter 1 "What Happens?" 
In essence, a structure stands until 
1) it becomes too complicated, 
2) becomes ad hoc (untestable), and/or 
3) cannot explain observations made.
In short you cannot ever really prove a structure works though you can demonstrated that there are problems with a structure. Absence of evidence is only useful if it deals with something a structure says should be observable under those conditions. Compounding the problem is that the very structure sets what is accepted or rejected as "empirical evidence" which could show that structure has problems.
"Evidence must gathered. But this evidence is accepted or rejected according the value placed on it by the structure." (Burke 1985:321) The structure determinces as what is considered "empirical evidence" and can
cause the rejection of perfectly good evidence like the movement of Mars, metorites, and Peking man. The structure also can cause the acceptance of what eventually turns out to be useless evidence: N-Rays, Piltdown man, phrenology, and Huxley's Bathybius.
==Notes==
==Reference==
*Burke, James (1985) The Day the Universe changed.
Category:Depreciated Skills