Mods/Thaumcraft/Research

Overview
To create and use magical devices, the player will need to research the nature of the things around them, and from this deduce the details of how to create their desired items. This begins with the use of the Thaumometer to scan various things (objects, blocks, creatures, items, and nodes) thus accumulating research points in each of the magical ../aspect/]s. (Each player does start with a small supply of research points, about 16 for each primal aspect.)  Use of a [[../research table/ then lets the player explore for recipes using those aspects.  The research table can also be used to combine aspects into new aspects; the (necessary) example from the Thauminomicon is that Aqua (water) and Terra (earth) combine to form Victus (life).

Scanning
Nearly every block, object, mob (and other entity), and especially node, has one or more aspects associated with it. Known things will have those aspects displayed when viewing them through the Thaumometer. (Non-placeable items can be scanned by dropping them and scanning the dropped item.) By right-holding the Thaumometer, an unknown object can be scanned, and you will gain research points equal to the monster, entity, or item's points. For a node, you will gain research points equal to about 1/10 of the node's strength in each aspect.

Note that a monster or item can't be scanned and "learned", unless you have at least one research point for each of the component aspects for the scanned thing's aspects. However, when you scan anything that teaches you a new aspect, you get double points for that scan.