Aim of the game

As in science, the scientist with the best reputation and impact wins!vBut watch out, other
scientists are also after fame and glory and will snatch at the chance to sabotage you in
the race to the top! Players must therefore, build up their lab, conduct experiments,
sabotage competitors and collect impact cards. The player with the most impact points wins
the game! The game is played by 2-5 players and should take 35-80 minutes depending on
player number.

Components of the game

25 character cards (5 sets of 5), 72 lab item cards, 18 Action cards, 24 Impact cards
1 genius token, 50 Research points (not given in PnP file)

Research Points
Research points (also called RPs for short) are the currency of the game. They are used
to purchase lab item cards from your hand or impact cards from the supply area to place
into your lab area

Impact cards
The red coloured Impact cards are bought during players turns using research points
indicated by the number required. They are placed face up in the supply area and may be
bought at any time during a players purchase phase.

Lab item cards

Lab item cards are blue coloured. Unlike impact cards lab item cards are drawn from the face
down lab item deck (see how to play section) and held in your hand. Item cards allow for
the generation of extra resources in addition to standard bonuses gained through
normal play.
Note: There is a 5 card lab item hand limit. When this limit is exceeded you must immediately discard cards
of your choice and place these at the bottom of the item card deck. The exception to this rule is if you
have built the secret tech card which increases your hand limit.

Action cards
Action cards are green coloured. If you successfully sabotage another competitor (see
sabotage section), by playing the professor card or by conducting an experiment using
the electron microscope you are given an action card as a bonus . Action cards DO NOT
contribute to your hand limit and are instead placed face down in your lab area once
you have looked at them.

Character cards
Character cards are purple coloured Each player is given a research team of 5 different
character cards (post doc, phd student, emeritus, principal investigator and professor).
Character cards have a sabotage bonus indicated by a
icon and a character bonus
indicated by a
icon. Characters are used once per round and then set aside face up.
Only the professor card allows players to pick up used character cards for use in
future turns.

Card examples
Impact cards

Lab item cards

NAME

NAME
NUMBER OF
RESEARCH
POINTS
REQUIRED TO
PURCHASE
FROM SUPPLY
AREA

HOW MUCH
THE CARD IS
WORTH AT
THE END OF
THE GAME

Nobel prize

15

Worth 10 impact points

At the end of the game

pipettes

:+1
: +2
: +5
the first complete patent for a pipette came in 1924
for the purpose of diluting blood for sugar testing

NUMBER OF
RESEARCH
POINTS
REQUIRED TO
PURCHASE FROM
YOUR HAND
IF YOU PLACE
THIS CARD
SIDEWAYS YOU
GENERATE ONE
ORANGE
SPECIALISM
Specialism
BONUS

*Some lab item cards have bonus icons in

the corner to remind players to activate
bonuses during the bonus phase*

Action cards
NAME

Character cards
NAME

First patent

Your bonus
during the
bonus phase

Effect of
playing the
action card
Target competitor is
prevented from
purchasing lab items
this round

If a professor
has been
revealed by a
competitor you
receive this
bonus

Setup
Remove the pipette cards from the lab item deck and give two to every player. Players
place these cards in front of them in their lab area to use immediately. Then shuffle the
remaining pipette and thermal cycler cards back into the item deck and reshuffle it.

Preparation of remaining cards:

Impact Cards. Create 3 individual piles of the following cards face up in the centre of the
table: a) Nurture papers b) Published books c) Nobel Prizes. Nurture papers and published
book cards are ordered by those of the lowest value on top of the pile and most
expensive at the bottom. The total number of each card also depends on the number of
players:
Number of players
2
3
4

Nurture papers
4
6
8

Published book
4
6
8

Nobel Prize
2
3
4

Item cards. Shuffle these cards and place in the centre of the table next to the row of
impact cards
Action cards. Shuffle these cards and place in the centre of the table in the centre of the
table. Note: If playing a 2 player game remove both copies of the Schrodingers Cat cards.
Each player then receives the following to start with:
3 randomly dealt lab item cards
5 character cards (post doc, phd student, emeritus, principal investigator and
professor)
2 research points

Suggested layout of the cards on table:

Who starts?
The player with the most scientific papers or who most recently watched a sci-fi film gains
the genius token which means they go first.

How to play:
At Beginning of each round each player does the following simultaneously:

1. Pick up 2 research points and 1 lab item. (Skipped for the first round)
Pick up 2 research points from the research point bank and 1 lab item from the lab item deck.
The research points go in your lab area and the lab item in your hand. Remember, if you
exceed more than 5 cards in your hand you must immediately choose and discard down to 5
and place discarded lab item cards at the bottom of the lab item deck (unless you have the
secret tech card in your lab area which increases the hand limit). N.B Research points
collected in this way (in addition to any research points your collect through the character
bonuses and action cards) are kept in your lab area. However, as you will read later,
research points generated by conducting experiments must be used during those turns.

2. Pick a character to play with

Players pick 1 character from a choice of up to 5 character cards. This card is placed face
down in front of them. When everyone has selected a character everyone then reveals with
whom they are playing with in that round.

3. Prepare lab items for use

Lab item cards can be used to conduct experiments. Those lab item cards which were placed
sideways in the previous round may now be used again by placing them upwards (see conduct
an experiment and purchase phase for more details).

4. Bonus phase
Resolve the effects of the bonus stipulated on your character card and lab item cards with
the icon that have been used in an experiment.

5. Sabotage phase
If a competing player has played a character card, which matches the name next to the
sabotage icon of your character card, you have successfully sabotaged that player. In the
event that there are two players matching the name, you must pick one player to sabotage.
The sabotaging player Resolves the sabotage bonus stipulated beneath the sabotage icon on
their character card. they also receive an action card as a bonus from the action card deck.
You may look at it before placing this face down in your lab area (see play action cards
section). In the event that there are 2 players who may sabotage one player, the player closest
to the genius token may sabotage only

Once all players have completed the simultaneous phases described in the previous page
each player has their own individual turn starting from the player who has the genius
token.

a) Conduct an experiment and purchase phase

Players may pay the research points required of lab item and impact cards and place them
from their hand or from the supply area respectively into their lab area. There is no
limitation on number of lab item cards purchased during your turn. However, there is a 2
impact card purchase limit per turn. Players may use cards in the same round they were
purchased and previous from previous rounds as long as they are ready to use (i.e. not
sideways)
Players may also conduct an experiment by placing one or a number of their lab item
cards in their lab area sideways if the appropriate
icon is stipulated and is available
(i.e. has not been placed sideways by a competitor) and resolving the effects.
Some cards automatically give you a bonus without needing to place them sideways.
Examples of these include the patent or secret tech cards. However, most lab item cards
give a bonus by placing them sideways and/or when you acquire a number of specialisms
during that turn. Specialisms are the icons indicated below. The orange viral icons give
extra research points while the purple chemical icons give extra cards. To select which
bonus you wish to activate you must select the card bonus to activate and inform your
competitors. You may then place your lab item card(s) sideways to acquire the specialisms
required to activate the bonus. The specialisms do not mean anything in terms of the
science they are just in a way, imaginary resources to gain research points or lab item
cards
Orange viral specialisms = research points
Purple chemical specialisms = draw extra lab item cards
Green DNA specialisms = only used by electron microscope

B) Play action cards

During any point of the game you may play 1 action card per round that you had previously
gained by sabotaging another player, conducting an experiment with the electron
microscope or by playing the professor card. When an action card is played, resolve its
effects and place this in the action discard pile, When all action cards have been used up,
shuffle the remaining action discard pile cards and create a new action card deck to draw
from.

C) Turn end
When a player has completed all their purchases and experiments the player next to them
in a clockwise fashion has their turn. Put aside your used character card face up. So other
players can see. You will only be able to pick up set aside character cards when you use the
professor card.
Since players seem to drift off into never never land once they complete their turn we
suggest you use the phrase Eureka! or some other crude word to imply that you are
finished!

Round ends
When all players have had their individual turns the genius token is passed to the next
player in a clockwise fashion. This player begins the next round.

Game end and who wins

The game ends at the end of the round when two of the impact card supply piles have been
depleted. Players tally up their impact point totals from their impact cards. The player with
the most impact points (including bonuses - see below) has the most scientific reputation
and wins the game! In the event of a tie, the player with the most remaining research points,
and then lab items in their lab area wins.

Game end bonuses

Bonuses are also given at the end of the game to:
1) The player with the most nurture papers: who gains an extra 3 impact points
2) Each Player with lab item cards of total value (the price you paid to put into your lab) 20,
30, or 40 in their lab area gain 1, 4 or 8 extra impact points respectively.