In the backwards sort of way that I often think, I was working on an NPC with advanced training in Math and Physics and lots of cognitive psi-sleights (Savant Calculation, Predictive Boost, Pattern Recognition, Enhanced Creativity, and Instinct). I realized that this character was turning into something other than what I had intended him to be so instead of starting over, I just went with it. I gave him the r-rep that such a character like that would almost certainly end up with and made up a profession field I called, Open Source Project Administration. So I spent some time thinking about what this NPC would be up to (since I had thrown away the original character, the quests he would give out would need to change, at least aesthetically even if they go worked into the same plot). I remembered something important about math and science: things are often discovered in very different ways than they are formally proven, but with Savant Calculation you can skip to the end of a lot of problems, and it's often easier to verify than to solve (for a trivial example, consider factoring the product of two large primes vs simply multiplying those large primes) For a character without formal training in math and science, this is an occasionally useful parlor trick. For someone with a skill of 60-80 in math and/or physics, it's something quite significantly more powerful (but conveniently, only for characters much more likely to be NPCs). So without even meaning to, I discovered I could have an NPC with the ability to push the fields of math and science at breakneck speeds. This was something I've always wanted but now find that I'm struggling with how to introduce things like prototypes without changing the aesthetics of the setting. I mean obviously, I can have this character get the players to test his prototypes, and it'll be almost impossible to hide those tests, especially if it's space-ship related. This opens up a lot of fun possibilities of people trying to steal the prototypes, bribe the players, kill the players, etc. But it also has the possibilities for making sweeping changes to the setting, which is something I want to almost completely avoid but not totally. I guess what it boils down to is that I have a severe lack of subtlety. So I guess my question is, what subtle examples of a changing understanding of the universe would you use to show the players that Science Marches On, even in Eclipse Phase? Even (or especially) if it's not something the players can't immediately exploit, but simply changes the world in ways that are hard to notice if you aren't paying attention.