As per public post #5840, the Manipulation research tree has been released!

Unlike other research trees, the Manipulation tree only has six ranks to unlock. Manipulation largely revolves the use of your ylem reserves to utilize various modifications the city can purchase at the appropriate rank. There is only a limited amount of modifications initially available to the city for purchase - you can unlock more for purchase by completing Delve contracts once at the appropriate Manipulation rank.

A couple of quick notes related to the release:
* We're revoking the 'residual_expand' artifact and will be refunding owners the full cost. This artifact will probably return at a later date after undergoing some number tweaks.
* The second contention of major foci will no longer always be Gateways.

Penned by my hand on the 7th of Haernos, in the year 443 MA.