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A Miracle of Science: Difference between revisions
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{{work}}
{{quote| ''"When you're a recovering mad scientist, you're always afraid you'll lose control and wake up some morning with a half-built time machine in the living room and a plan to go back in time and pants [[Hitler]]."''}}
'''''[http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/ A Miracle of Science]''''' is a [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness/World of Phlebotinum|science fiction]] [[Web Comic]] written by Jon Kilgannon and drawn by Mark Sachs. It ran for 435 strips from 2002 to 2007.
▲''[http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/ A Miracle of Science]'' is a [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness/World of Phlebotinum|science fiction]] [[Web Comic]] written by Jon Kilgannon and drawn by Mark Sachs. It ran from 2002 to 2007 and was set [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|in the year 2148]], when humanity has spread across the solar system from Venus to Ganymede, and robotics and artificial intelligence are well developed, advanced sciences. Also of note is the science of memetics, which can be used to treat (or cause) psychological issues. Of key importance in the story is one specific meme, [[Science-Related Memetic Disorder]] (or, more colloquially, [[Mad Scientist|mad science]]).
Key characters include Benjamin Prester, a field agent of the Vorstellen Police, a law-enforcement agency specializing in SRMD; Caprice Quevillion, a Martian forensic psychiatrist assigned as his partner; and Virgil Haas, the [[Mad Scientist]] they attempt to capture. The story opens not long after Mars, a [[Crystal Spires and Togas|utopian]] [[Hive Mind|group intelligence]], has ended a century of self-imposed isolation.
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Given its Mad Scientist motif, one should expect that a significant number of tropes appear as important plot points in the comic. In fact, given the science of memetics, the characters themselves use tropes (common examples being the [[Chase Scene]] and the [[Denouement]]) as psychological aids when dealing with mad scientists.
Kilgannon and Sachs went on to collaborate on a second
{{tropenamer}}
* [[Science-Related Memetic Disorder]]: The name of the mad science disease.
{{tropelist}}
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* [[Badass Boast]] "Oh come on! I've plunged down from orbit on ''wings of fire''... so don't ''even'' think ''you'' can scare me!" Benjamin has a longer version of this boast as well.
* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Benjamin wears one most of the time.
*
* [[Big Guy, Little Guy]]: Dryden and Chaucer, respectively, are a robotic version and thus able to take the trope to new heights.: Chaucer is the size and shape of a hamster ball; Dryden is several times bigger than a human.
* [[Black Eyes of Evil]]: Minus the "evil" part. See the [[Voice of the Legion]] entry below.
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* [[Cheerful Child]]: Wei Quevillion, Caprice's seven-year-old sister.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|Benjamin Prester}}'s therapy is [http://project-apollo.net/mos/mos270.html reported to be robust against anything less than a major psychological disturbance].
{{quote| [[The Rant|Jon Kilgannon]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|This page is guaranteed to be 100% free of foreshadowing.]] [[Blatant Lies|I swear.]]}}
* [[Closer Than They Appear]]: [http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos354.html This strip] does it with a pair of glowing evil eyes, in the middle of a chase scene.
* [[Concealment Equals Cover]]: subverted on [http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos323.html this page]. When Benjamin is attempting to take cover behind an upturned table, the man shooting at him simply shoots ''through'' the table... and then mocks him for taking cover behind such a flimsy object.
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* [[Mental Fusion]]: See [[Hive Mind]], above.
* [[Nanomachines]]: The main source of the Martians' advanced technology.
* [[People's Republic of Tyranny]]: The People's Republic of the Moon, a drab-looking lunar colony that's heavily implied to be a Communist state (USSR imitation), at least at the time of flashback. It's mentioned that they've got a picture of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavrentiy_Beria| Beria]{{Dead link}}, head of Stalin's [[Secret Police]], on at least one denomination of their money, which suggests something about what they value.
* [[Plot Technology]]: subverted. When mad scientists are captured, their inventions and research are used for the benefit of society as a whole.
* [[The Rant]]: Reading Jon and Mark's columns is strictly optional, but they offer a bit more insight into the comic's world and also occasional scientific lectures.
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* [[Wig, Dress, Accent]], subverted in [http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos304.html this page] by having a poorly-disguised version of the protagonists going through customs... and then having the ''actual'' protagonists enter the scene in the next page.
* [[Wrecked Weapon]]: Benjamin has a gun {{spoiler|that he just built with his mad science abilities}} [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands|shot out of his hand]]. Twice.
{{quote| ['''Ben:''': somewhat hysterically [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"He shot my gun!]] He ''shot'' my ''gun!'' ''Why are you negotiating with the man who '''shot my gun'''?!"''}}
* [[You Can Barely Stand]]: Word for word, in the final Chase Scene.
* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]]: Blue hair runs in Caprice's family, presumably on her mother's side; her dad has brown hair, but every other Quevillion we see has some shade of blue hair. There's a smattering of extras with oddly colored hair, either flat-out unnatural or just [[Dark-Skinned Blond|matching oddly]] [[Dark-Skinned Redhead|with their skin tone]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:Sci Fi Webcomics]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Web Comics]]
[[Category:Web Comics of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Completed Web Comics]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miracle of Science, A}}
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