Mad Science Laboratory: While a lot more modern, sleek and high-tech than the stereotypical example described – well, these days, anyway – in the Empire the “gentleman scientist” never quite went away, and came back in force with greater wealth and the cornucopia machine making it a lot more practical, just as Home Inventions did. There are a lot of pocket laboratories attached to people’s houses here and there, and their robotic assistants, too.
A decent amount of madness, too. “We do what we can, because we must.”