I horribly misread this momentarily, but now I'm imagining what "research turrets" could look like. Red science powered turrets? :)

Every time it shoots something, it produces a little bit of research.

Anyone remember when the aliens dropped alien-artifacts, needed to make purple-science?

Uggghhhhhhhh. The game is so much better today than where it started (and it already was a good game back then... crazy how much all the little improvements helped).

If not, time for bed!