If you'r running Vista or have .NET installed on an older Windows, you can use the free Galactopedia to poke around all the tech trees.

I'm pretty sure that everyone can get a Good, Evil, or Neutral tech down the tree from Xeno Ethics, but not everyone has alignment-exclusive weapon techs like the Drengin's Psionic Beams.

What do you mean by 'lose out?' Is it about techs that yield bonuses vs. techs that enable modules? I'm a large-map player, and I tend to value empire-wide bonuses more than almost anything else.

Now, that doesn't stop them from buying the tech once someone else researches it.... I did get to pull that off one game as Evil Thalans and some other race got Concepts of Malice researched.  Buying that MCC outright that week hurt my budget...but I felt better about it afterwards (this was prior to the fixed MCC went into play).