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Hopefully this writeup will offer a short and helpful pro/con review for those trying to make their mind up about playing or purchasing this expansion.
GAME: SETTLERS OF CATAN CARD GAME (1996)
EXPANSION: SCIENCE & PROGRESS
PUBLISHER: MAYFAIR GAMES
PROS 
- Interesting and valuable City Expansion Cards. The premise of Science & Progress (S&P) is that as the people of Catan pursue knowledge, their ability to use these smarts helps them develop their cities. Many of these new City expansions are well-designed. From cards that allow you to search expansion stacks for free (Assembly Hall), construction tools that reduce City building costs (Building Crane), and social services that only the well-developed countries can enjoy (Fire Brigade), the new buildings in S&P match the theme extremely well.
- The 'Progress' part feels progressive. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the same goes for Catan. As it is normally, you can't build a City without first building a Settlement. This idea is expanded to reflect that certain buildings must come before other buildings. Many new cards require the building first of a University before educated workers can go out and provide extra benefits. Likewise, the Assembly hall first requires a Town Hall, the Cathedral first requires an Abbey, etc. A sense of progress is built in to this expansion.
- the Embassy. With only one Embassy available, the first player to build it may do so in their opponent's principality, blocking an expansion space there and furthermore requiring their opponent to reveal every card they draw. This is a powerful card, and in a flourish of revolt, your opponent may attempt to set fire to the Embassy! A nice touch.
- The Cannon The Cannon appears! Finally, we know what the Civil War Event card was talking about all this time. With the power to give 6 Knight points, and two in the deck, a double Cannon combo can be virtually unstoppable. And you need the University to build it (again reflecting the progress of war.)
CONS 
- Boring event cards. The lame and highly-specialized Land Reform card (switch the location of two Region Cards in your principality) is really only valuable if you have a particular Region upgrade, and the one-time resource collector cards can be helpful, but they are just not very interesting. The rest of the Action cards are included in the base game. I would have hoped for neater actions that involved science and progress!
- This expansion is made for Cities. By design, the flavour of this expansion does not come into play until Cities are built, so expect the first half of your game to not feel like an expansion is actually part of the experience at all.
- Progress can be slow. While a neat idea, the process of having to buy one building before you can by the other building before you upgrade this building, etc. requires long-term planning and lucky card pulls. Many of the expansion cards require the building of the University, and the University card alone provides no special abilities except the before mentioned benefit. So this expansion requires slow-and-steady; there's no quick rumbles here.
- Haven't I seen this card before? The first thing you'll notice is that this expansion includes 7 cards from the base game and one card from the Knights & Merchants expansion. Yes, having bigger Cities means more Plagues and more Civil Wars, but having more of the same isn't really my idea of an expansion.
FINAL COMMENT 
Personally, I like when expansions change up the way the game is played a little in order to spice things up. S&P just gives you more cards, while pretty much keeping the feeling and flow of the base game intact. Yes, for what it's worth, S&P adds a thematic element that is interesting, but ultimately this expansion falls flat from the lack of additional creative features. If you'd like to pursue Science and Progress in the game, you can, by buying the University and exploring the available options. But only 6 new cards require the University to be built, and either pursuing (or not pursuing) this route will not ultimately decide the winner of the game. (This is unlike Knights & Merchants, where a player who does not use the new cards effectively stands a much greater chance of losing.) In conclusion, Science & Progress is an expansion that I probably will not be using again.
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