When it boils down to the essentials, Dwight's methods are simply advanced biology. All the laws and theories of common science apply to advanced science, too. But often those more common concepts are just the building blocks for more complex ideas and understandings. Spheres are sciences that are beyond the ken of an average and conventional scientist, not a daring researcher and "free thinker" like Dwight Cornell.
Dwight recognizes that there are strange things out there, but they can all be explained by science. Reality Deviants, for example, are not "supernatural" creatures. They're merely the result of extreme biological mutations and can thus be altered and "cured" (through genetic medicine if nothing else). Primal Energy is another example. It's not some weird, alien fuel. It's simply a biochemical energy that Sleepers and lesser scientists have yet to recognize. Finally, Paradox: Paradox is not some malefic force. It's the name given to the consequences when inevitable anomalies in one's advanced equations and scientific Procedures are not accounted for. The "simpler" one's Procedures are, the less likely Paradox-related consequences are to strike.
Through his Enlightened Science, Dwight hopes to perfect the human form. When that goal is achieved, everything else will fall into place, he rationalizes. His own life at the very least will be extended for unnatural periods of time. But what is natural? If by natural, one means that which occurs originally in the geo-ecosystem, then very little about humanity is now natural. Clothing certainly would not be natural, nor would the use of tools. Why draw lines between using a primitive stone chisel and the precision technologies of the day? Why claim that herbs boiled over a campfire to cure an illness are any more or less natural than genetic surgery to cure cancer? If one is to live like anything besides an ape, one might as well embrace mankind's evolutionary discoveries. And men like Dwight Cornell are the sorts that push the boundaries of those discoveries everyday.
Life is constantly evolving. Evolution redefines all of reality in the end. Yet it can be predicted. And if the source of reality's changes is biological evolution, then it stands to reason to delve into the source of life: genetics. Through genetic predictions, Dr. Cornell can affect the comings and goings, the patterns and whorls, of the Sphere of Entropy.
The specialty of all Progenitors, the Sphere of Life is really just hyper-biology. It is the goal of the Convention to master the human body and all life, the better to craft one's own mortality and control one's own fate. The biochemical realities of advanced science, while naturally occurring, demand pro-active effort on the part of the scientist. After all, it they simply happened, even Sleepers would be aware of them by now. And Dwight employs the apparati of surgery to bring the mysteries of Life to light. Whether dealing with difficult micro-genetic surgery to transform a living being into another, or just grafting a new leg onto a field agent, it all comes down to this medical task. Of course, that's a fairly broad definition: Dwight's methods of surgery include the use of scalpel and laser. They vary from the simple act of decontaminating surgical instruments to the brewing of primordial and inert flesh from stem cells. Of course, the creation of new life is Dwight's specialty, and he's rarely bothered to patch up field agents.
To Dwight, there is little difference in practice to the Sphere of Matter from Life. Inorganic or non-living materials are at the least less complicated than living matter. Since he employs this Sphere only in relevance to Life, Dwight really doesn't consider alchemical or mechanical applications of the Sphere. Surgery is still the medium to enact the science behind this Sphere, although more often than not laser surgery is needed to alter or mend non-living materials where the scalpel fails.
Environment versus heritage? It's both, Dwight recognizes! Like most Progenitors, Dwight approaches the Sphere of Mind from a biological perspective. Psychological and sociological theories are combined with genetic mapping, a discipline coined psychophylogeny, to help Dwight understand, predict, and manipulate living minds. Although Dwight can use this knowledge to affect those around him, he uses it far more often in research aspects. Psychophylogeny allows him to program behaviors into a being that he creates from his vats of primordial ooze. Indeed, one could classify his specialty in Mind as the creation of artificial intelligence. But the intelligence Dwight creates is allowed to evolve to the limits that the genetic plan he pre-programs allows. It is not simply an artificial consciousness inside a non-human host, as Iterators might conceive.
As noted before, Primal Energy is biochemical matter that eludes Sleepers due to a lack of the correct and sophisticated technologies. Like any energy, it can be manipulated with the right devices and correct physical equations. Of course, Dwight is a Progenitor, so his device will not be some cold machine. He employs chemical compounds that have been proven to interact with the more elusive Primal Energy source. The right mediums can guide Primal Energy in or out of a person, place, or thing, or can concentrate within a subject to fuel the effects desired. However Dr. Dwight Cornell opts to use Primal Energy, it's clear that the Sphere of Prime is a cornerstone of his scientific ambitions.
Genius
The inevitable variables and inconsistencies of evolution conflict with the drive to perfect the human form within Dwight's psyche. The struggle presses him forward, ever seeking progress. And that is success Dr. Dwight Cornell will one day claim. He has the confidence and tenacity to obtain the mastery for which he yearns and he will outshine all his fellow scientists. Ultimately, his Genius manifests only as a feeling of restless intensity. Some scientists offer a pretense of humility, believing their work is overshadowed by others or even by God. Then again, other scientists see their work as the only real divinity. In a way, Dwight's one of the latter. But he doesn't want to play god. Dwight wants to be god.
Resonance
Dynamic (Creative)
Advanced science demands an active imagination, not an eccentric kook ball stuck in the late 19th century. And Dr. Dwight Cornell embodies that state-of-the-art innovation. The man finds it easy to express his original ideas, receiving a -3 difficulty to related Social rolls (such as oral presentations to his RD). But his deviance from Sleeper-accepted theories grow more obvious with his ideas that are so often light years ahead of normal science that he suffers a +3 difficulty on Social rolls relating to explaining his ideas to the unEnlightened (except unEnlightened Progenitors "in the know").
The man's spark of creativity clearly affects his scientific Procedures, too. Dwight finds it much easier to create than destroy. Effects designed to create and heal life receive a -1 difficulty to the Enlightenment rolls while those designed to destroy and harm life suffer a +1 difficulty to his Enlightenment checks.
Entropic (Degenerative)
Anomalies in Dwight's biological calculations are not only inevitable but also growing more frequent. It's as if the complexity of life was trying to purposely vex and mutate to elude his efforts. This frustrates the Progenitor, of course. He finds it easier to urge haste in others (-2 difficulty to such Social rolls) than he does counseling patience and calm (+2 difficulty to related Social rolls).
Scientifically, Dwight has a harder and harder time planning for anomalies. This makes it harder to use the entire Entropy Sphere (+1 difficulty to Enlightenment checks) unless he intends to spawn chaos or disorder with an Entropy Procedure (-1 difficulty to those Enlightenment rolls).
Static (Evolving)
Luckily, life evolves more than it degenerates. And so it is with Dr. Cornell's thought processes. His erudite mind astounds others with his leaps of logic. And he gets so caught up with his ideas that he finds it very easy to wage intellectual and scientific debates (-3 difficulty to related Social rolls). Unfortunately, explaining in "Layman's terms" is something Dwight often forgets. Keep up or die, that's what Darwinian logic says! So he suffers a +3 difficulty to Social rolls where he must "dumb down" or explain plainly science and its concepts.
In his labs, this Resonance reflects in an ease to devise his own original Procedures. Performing such Effects gains a -1 difficulty to his Enlightenment rolls. Using the same "old" Conventional Procedures, however, lessens Dwight as a scientist and imposes a +1 difficulty to his Enlightenment checks.
GenLab-WV2 (Laboratory)
~The GenLab WV-2 facility is located in the heart of a Progenitor-controlled medical research clinic in downtown Kansas City, the Hartman Research Association. Dr. Cornell is fortunate enough to have such a spacious wing. To access the GenLab, visitors must first get past a security checkpoint with all the usual technological fancies and watchful Progenitor guards. Clean room wash downs follow, in which visitors must don hazmat suits and undergo a pressurized chemical gas saturation to keep alien microbes out of the labs.
The entirety of the GenLab is tiled off-white, the surfaces and doors a pragmatic mixture of tempered glass, hard plastic, and stainless steel. It includes its own restroom facility and a general study, both of which seem the most human-oriented of all chambers here. The study is even carpeted and includes shelves of reference books and a desk with a computer set-up. But the first room one enters through the clean room is Dwight's general research chamber and surgical facility. An array of surgeon's tools, biological chemicals, and even advanced surgical lasers are prepared in this room. Besides the two surgical beds, there is plenty of workspace: stainless steel tables with nothing on them.
To the left from this central chamber lies the bathroom and study. To the right, one enters a large storeroom, filled with all manner of boxes, jugs, and glassware. Electronics and chemicals mingle apart in their sealed containers here on or near steel shelves. Directly straight back through the general chamber lies a "sensitive technology" laboratory. Here one will find super-powered microscopes, computer enhancement software, precision lasers, and radioactive devices. And what Progenitor lab would be complete without sealed vats of primordial oozes of a variety of colors?
The GenLab's multiple chambers are all connected by automatic doors of transparent tempered and reinforced glass that slide up and down vertically. Security lockdowns are available on all of these doors. Only the bathroom and study are linked by normal steel portals. The whole place blends a sense of Dr. Strange with medical sterility, encouraging the average scientist to ignore his curiosity and work elsewhere. This is the beating heart of Dr. Dwight Cornell and his erudite ambitions.~
