What if the remnants would be the new ones only as long as nobody (player/bitters..) would walk through them. As soon as you enter a tile where a remnant would physically still block you, you crush the fragile remnant under you and the original generic flat remnant (or a specific flat one) would rep...

If the description of a research (e.g. Circuit Network) is too long the "Research" button is offscreen and it's not possible to start the research. I'm on a macbook with a 13 inch screen.

http://i.imgur.com/QR1MCmg.jpg