Sciences Department
 
The Science Department aboard a starship is usually subdivided into smaller departments listed below. Most of the power lies in the hands of these department heads and the senior researchers directly below them.

On a large ship or base, where there are enough resources and personnel, some of the departments may be divided up even further into subdepartments. At the first stage of this division, a subdepartment head is created, which is subordinate to the full department head. On starbases and starships larger still, this large subdepartment may be expanded into a full fledge independent department, in which case the subdepartment head is a full department head and subordinate to no one. Such departments/subdepartments may include Anthropology, Linguistics and History, Physics and Astronomy and Particle Physics and Stellar Physics, to name a small few.

For example, on the USS Galaxy, the anthropology department is large enough that the history department has been changed to a fully separate, independent department. To further illustrate this independence, Dakota Harris, the former chief of the history department, had served as the elected chief science officer.

 
 
Science Department Hierarchy
   
 


A - Chief Science Officer

Elected by the Science Department Chiefs or designated by the Captain, the Chief Science Officer is usually one of the Science Department Chiefs, which means one person doubles as the Chief Science Officer and, say, the Chief of Geology. The main duty of the Chief Science Officer is to mediate conflicts between the science departments and to ensure top priority studies and/or experiments issued by the captain are carried out. Nearly all scientific study and decision making is carried out within the specific departments by the department chiefs or other subordinate officers, as is the delegation of scientific resources; the Chief Science Officer only steps in to make a decision if the departments cannot decide among themselves.


B – Department Heads

Department Heads have most of the power in the science department. They are in charge of the personnel, equipment and labs within their department. Therefore, they have some say in what type of research projects are conducted. Department heads are often a senior researcher, in charge of their own projects, but this research comes second to the maintenance and running of the department. Usually, the department heads elect a member of themselves to be chief science officer, but sometimes the captain will choose one himself. They must also work with other department heads about decisions involving the use of shared resources – namely, the sensor palettes on the ship’s hull. If they cannot come to an agreement amongst themselves, a third department head or the chief science officer must step in to decide.

1 – Subdepartment Heads

Occasionally, large subdepartments may require their own chief, who would serve as a subordinate to the department head. Subdepartment heads have essentially the same powers and responsibilities of a department head, but their power is subordinate.


C – Senior Researchers

Senior Researchers are the leaders of research aboard a starship. They are the people that come up and lead research projects. They are usually assigned a number of junior researchers and general science officers to assist them in their research projects. Occasionally, they may have their own lab, depending on the department and availability. They must apply to use other labs, equipment, personnel or other ship’s resources. The department head is in charge of granting these supplies. Senior researchers usually participate in seminars, colloquia or talks to the rest of the science department and ship to discuss their research. They also write reports to scientific journals and the rest of the Federation scientific community.


D – Junior Researchers

Junior Researchers are essentially senior researchers in training. They may occasionally lead their own research project, but usually they assist and lead small parts of a project under the guidance of a senior researcher. They work with senior researchers in their grant proposals and reports, and may also participate in the seminars aboard ship.


E – General Science Officers

General Science Officers are unspecialized scientists. They usually have functional knowledge of a great many fields in science. They can be stationed and rotated out amongst the many subdepartments. General science officers do not have the expertise to lead research or research groups. They are there to assist the researchers as computer specialists, data reducers, experimentalists, observers, etc. A general science officer may choose to be mentored by a senior researcher and become trained in a specialization. This is generally required before any promotions. Starfleet commissioned officers are usually trained in a specific field and enter the fleet as junior researchers. Noncommissioned officers make up the bulk of general science officers.

 
 
 
 
Branches
   
  Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of alien cultures and civilizations and their evolution, and is one of the largest, most general field of sciences. It involves the study of the evolution of a species and its anatomy, the geographic effects of its home planet, the customs, traditions, knowledge, values, language, architecture, religion, the governmental and economic systems of the species and its historical development. Obviously, anthropologists will have to work with scientists from many other fields in their work.

Subdepartments of Anthropology (Often found as separate departments entirely) are found to the right.

Social-Cultural Anthropology

History

Linguistic Anthropology

Archaeology

Biological Anthropology
 
 
 
Psychology

Psychologists study behavior and the mind, meaning conscious and unconscious mental states. They seek to learn why people think, act, feel and behave the way they do. With its broad scope, psychology investigates an enormous range of phenomena: learning and memory, sensation and perception, motivation and emotion, thinking and language, personality and social behavior, intelligence, infancy and child development, mental illness, and much more. Furthermore, psychologists examine these topics from a variety of complementary perspectives. Some conduct detailed biological studies of the brain, others explore how we process information; others analyze the role of evolution, and still others study the influence of culture and society. This department works extremely closely with the Counseling department on ships large enough to maintain a distinct separation between the two.


Biopsychology

Clinical Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Social Psychology

 
 
  Biology

Biology is the study of life. It is probably the largest, most varied area of the sciences. Biologists study any living being and organic material, including plants, animals, ecology, cells and genetics.
Ecology

Evolutionary Biologists

Humanoid Biology

Microbiology

Botany

Zoology

Molecular Biology
 
 
  Chemistry

Chemistry is the study of the composition, structure, properties and interactions of matter. Chemistry allows for the synthesis of allows, plastics, polymers and medicine.

Inorganic Chemistry

Organic Chemistry

Radiochemistry

Physical Chemistry
 
 
  Geology

Geology is the study of planetary and planetesimal bodies, their interiors, history and the process that act on them. This science department also concerns itself with the study surface phenomena which affect planets, such as its hydrology, climate and weather.

Geophysics and Seismology

Geochemistry

Mineralogy

Structural Geology

Hydrology

Geomorphology

Sedimentology

Climatology and Meteorology
 
 
  Physics and Astronomy

Physics is the study of matter and energy, usually in its most fundamental forms. Astronomy, on the other hand, is the study of the universe and the celestial bodies, gas and dust within it. These two are often paired, though, for a number of reasons. Historically, astronomy is an outgrowth of physics, concerned with the motion of stars in the sky. Today, however, the field of physics has advanced so far that many of the theories and experiments deal with the most extreme cases of matter and energy, which can only be found in the deep cold of space, at the core of stars, or in the heart of black holes or other unique and rare phenomena. Subspace, a recent discovery, can only truly be studied in space where its many varieties of anomalies can be found.


Stellar Cartography

Stellar and Planetary Physics and Astronomy

Nebular Astronomy and Physics

Galactic Astronomy and Physics

Cosmology

Quantum, Atomic and Subatomic Physics

Dynamics

Subspace Astronomy and Physics

Other Advanced Physics (String Theory, Multidimensional Physics, Temporal Physics)
 
 
 
Major Laboratories in Astronomy and Physics
   
 


a – Stellar Cartography

This lab is used chiefly by stellar cartographers. It has a small separate computer core used to model the location of stars and other celestial phenomena as you move through the galaxy. It stores all the star maps used by helm and navigation.

b – Astrometrics

Astrometrics is really a misnomer. It only has very little to do with the field of astrometry, which is the motion of stars on the sky. Astrometrics is essentially the first stop for all scientific data collected by ships sensors. It does mainly preliminary work on this data before it is sent to the other labs and departments who request it. It can also be used to do some in depth research, but this is secondary to its primary function.

Galactic Maps
 
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