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{{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. The
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.
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* [[Genki Girl]]: Wei Quevillion, as the protagonists comment on [http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos166.html this page].
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: The Pindars, which [http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos393.html gets on Chaucer's nerves at one point]:
{{quote|
'''Pindar-Two''': I'm going to take that as a compliment. }}
* [[Genius Loci]]: The Martian people form a collective consciousness.
{{quote|
'''Benjamin''': That's like saying "''Brazil'' has decided you're ''cute''." }}
* [[Genre Savvy]]: The entire science of memetics relies on this. {{spoiler|The Vorstellen Police catches mad scientists by knowing exactly how they will react to certain situations.}}
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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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* [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]: Benjamin Prester, Caprice Quevillion, and even Virgil Haas are or become unwilling to kill innocents. How well they stick by this rule during a disaster tells quite a bit about their resistance to [[Villainous Breakdown|Breakdown]], and in Prester's case, [[Character Development]].
* [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]]. While not mentioned directly in the plotline, it's mentioned in the site's glossary that the book ''Crank Theories of Robotics'' is a known cause of SRMD; effectively, one can become a [[Mad Scientist]] simply by reading it. Doctor Haas is seen with it in the prologue.
* [[Voice of the Legion]]: Whenever the Martian group mind speaks through one of its members. Said member simultaneously acquires [[Black Eyes of Evil]]: minus the "evil" part.
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Caprice immediately calls Benjamin out on his plan to escape Haas' attack on their ship by blasting up five civilian ships and killing a few hundred people. {{spoiler|This may or may not have been foreshadowing.}}
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Sci Fi Webcomics]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:Web Comics of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Completed Web Comics]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miracle of Science, A}}
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