Using a steel knife that I palmed from my dad's workshop, I snipped off a single shimmering leaf from the Mystic-Willow-Oak and went into the tent to properly examine the biological processes taking place inside it.

My Infoscopes fizzed out every two minutes due to our proximity to the fault, so I had to constantly make new ones. Holding the leaf in my hand made it easier to scan.

Infoscopes 1 and 2 were spinning in a perfect circle around the tower, keeping track of potential incursions while I used Infoscope 3 as a microscope to evaluate my crystalline-organic sample.

Crystallography, the study of crystal structures was a major focus of Soviet science in fields of physics, chemistry, and materials sciences. Influential scientists like Shubnikov and Vainshtein made substantial contributions to the development of crystallography.

I visited the Moscow-based, A. V. Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography often in 1959 when I worked on my Virology thesis, attending lectures covering the latest research in the crystalline structure of viral proteins. The Shubnikov Institute had an excellent department of X-ray crystallography, which allowed professors and students to study the atomic and molecular structure of crystals.

My Infoscope couldn't produce an X-ray beam, nor did I have the necessary equipment to determine the amount of x-ray diffraction to produce a three-dimensional picture of the density of electrons within a crystal.

What it did have, was [Identify] and [Modify], the first responsible for pulling information about an object it was pointed at from the nearby Astral and the second able to modify the smallest currents of magic.

Magic, as I understood it, was a phenomenon unique to Novazem. If my Earth possessed any magic, it was not detected by the brightest minds of USSR. What we did have was radiation.

Both magic and radiation were invisible forces that influenced and altered the world around them. They operated beyond the realm of normal human senses, yet their effects were profound.

The crystalline-organic leaf of the Mystic-Willow-Oak was a prime example of nature and magic intertwining. Just as a radioactive sample of plutonium emitted alpha particle radiation, the leaf in my possession radiated magical energies, which Alanians referred to as 'etheric mana'. Specifically, the leaf projected a weak [Vascular-Vitality] field, a tad less so, now that it was cut off from the tree.

Both radiation and magic had the potential to cause harm or provide benefits. Radiation caused cellular damage, but could also be harnessed for medical treatments and power generation. There was a multitude of radiation that we studied and harnessed in USSR such as: Visible light, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, X-ray, Neutron, Cosmic, Ultraviolet, Infrared, Microwave, Radio Wave, etc.

Magic, on the other hand, possessed infinite specific conceptual alignment defined by my Infoscope with Omnicode-words such as [Life], [Death], [Destruction], [Fire], etc.