The Big Bang Theory & Science

In this Season 5 episode of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper is forced to take a vacation.  Sheldon decides that he will take his vacation by going to Amy’s biology lab.  He states that Richard Feynman went to a biology lab when he was forced to take a vacation.  So, for this week’s blog, I decided that I would discuss Richard Feynman.

Richard Feynman was born in 1918.  He received his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1942.  Feynman proceeded to work for Princeton, and Cornell, before joining the California Institute of Technology.

One of Dr. Richard Feynman’s greatest achievements was his lectures in a two year introductory undergraduate physics class.  Lectures that became famously known as The Feynman Lecture on Physics.

Early on in his career, while he was at Princeton, he became a junior physicist for the Manhattan Project.  Feynman worked with Hans Bethe in the Manhattan Project, and together they developed a formula for calculating the yield of a fission bomb.

Later in his career at Caltech, Dr. Feynman won a Nobel Prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics.  In this work, he developed his Feynman diagrams that I brought up before in my blog.  One of his diagrams was the final question in the physics bowl on The Big Bang Theory.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-bio.html

http://www.caltech.edu/article/12019

http://www-scf.usc.edu/~kallos/feynman.htm

The Big Bang Theory had its first new episode in a couple of weeks.  This new episode started out with a reference to immortality.  Leonard sits down at the lunch table and brings up the topic that immortality might be real.  He says that he was reading about a “jellyfish that never dies.  Instead, it reverts to its asexual state and then it grows up again.”

This all seemed a little unrealistic, but as it turned out, it was pretty accurate.  A jellyfish known as Turritopsis dohrnii has this amazing feat.  While being only the size of the nail on your pinky finger, this jellyfish can cause its cell’s to basically reverse their aging process, and go back to youthful states.  When the creature’s environment or well-being is threatened (by something such as a food shortage), the jellyfish can go from its medusa, adult stage, back to its infantile polyp stage, where it can reproduce asexually.

Turritopsis dohrnii, National Geographic

This astounding feat is being studied for all its potential.  Some researchers believe that it could lead to a cancer cure/treatment.  Nevertheless, the study of this jellyfish could lead to many new discoveries.  The jellyfish was first discovered in the 1800’s, but its “immortality” characteristic was not realized until the 1990’s.

One aspect of this that I found very coincidental, is that National Geographic quoted a researcher from Penn State.  Penn State is making an impact everywhere!

Sources:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090130-immortal-jellyfish-swarm_2.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/can-a-jellyfish-unlock-the-secret-of-immortality.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/immortal-jellyfish-lives-forever-reverts-stage-life_n_2207583.html

http://news.discovery.com/human/jellyfish-immortality-claim-121130.htm

Television shows always have their recurring themes, and topics that keep getting brought up.  In the Big Bang Theory, Schrodinger’s cat is one of them.  It has been referenced multiple times, and it has even got to the point that Penny remembers what it is.  The first reference to it was when Sheldon was talking to Penny about her relationship with Leonard.  Sheldon goes on,

” In 1935, Erwin Schrodinger, in an attempt to explain the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, he proposed an experiment where a cat is placed in a box with a sealed vial of poison that will break open at a random time. Now, since no-one knows when or if the poison has been released, until the box is opened, the cat can be thought of as both alive and dead.”

An illustration of Schrodinger’s Cat

He uses this example to explain to Penny that until they try out the relationship, there is no way to know if it will be good, bad, alive, or dead.

As it normally turns out, Sheldon is exactly right.  Schrodinger’s cat is a thought experiment that describes quantum physics and the idea of being in multiple states at once.  One thing that is left out in Sheldon’s summary of the story is that Erwin Schrodinger proposed that the cat is in the box with a vial of poison that is broken if a radiation detector detects that a piece of uranium also put in the box radioactively decays.  What this goes on to parallel in science, is how until an observation is made, a quantum particle must be thought to be in all its states at once.

An interesting thing that I found in my research was that Erwin Schrodinger made this analogy to ridicule some of his colleagues who “proclaimed that conscious observers somehow conjure the real world into existence.”

Schrodinger’s cat will go down in infamy.  It has become interlaced into pop culture (I believe partly due to The Big Bang Theory), and will be the subject of TV shows, T-shirts, and countless other displays.

For more information on Schrodinger’s Cat, please see my sources below.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/02/weekinreview/on-skinning-schrodinger-s-cat.ht

http://www.universetoday.com/54076/schrodingers-cat/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bringing-schrodingers-quantum-cat-to-life

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi347.htm

The Big Bang Theory has many recurring elements.  One these topics has always been the California Institute of Technology.  This is where Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Howard are famed to work.  This university is not only real, but is also one of the World’s premier schools for science, technology, and engineering.  One of their many claims to fame, is that their school has produced 31 Nobel Laureates, among many many other highly proclaimed awards.

I have always known that this university was a major player in many fields, but I never realized how many well-known famous people have been at Caltech.  People such as the physicist Richard Feynman, Theodore von Karman, Charles Richter, and many other people.  Here is more information about the history and impact of Caltech.

  One of the school’s most iconic buildings is the Beckman Institute.  Arnold Beckman is a very famous chemist and philanthropist, who invented the pH meter. 

The Beckman Institute at Caltech

On a final note, what I find to be one of the most awesome things about Caltech is its connection with NASA.  Caltech has managed a Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA since 1958.  Currently, Caltech has 23 spacecraft and 10 instruments employed in active missions. 

All of this put together, it makes a lot of sense that The Big Bang Theory’s characters would work at Caltech.  Sheldon is a physicist striving for a Nobel Prize.  Leonard is an experimental physicist, and Raj is an astrophysicist.  Howard is an engineer who works on projects for NASA.  All of these amazing things are happening in real life at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.  (Of course it is other people not the fictional characters who do these things!)

Sources:

http://www.caltech.edu/content/history-milestones

http://www.caltech.edu/content/awards-honors

ieee.caltech.edu

www.gg.caltech.edu

“The  Closet Reconfiguration” episode of The Big Bang Theory, had the couples on the show hosting dinner parties, while Sheldon would organize their closets.  While organizing Howard and Bernadette’s sloset, he found an unopened letter from Howard’s father.  Howard really did not want to know what was in the envelope, but it obviously bothered him.  Slowly, all of his friends find out what is in the letter.  The solution that they devise to help Howard is for each of them to say different stories of what was in the letter, so he would know, but not know the contents.  Sheldon relates his idea to science, and states that it is a “macroscopic example of the quantum superposition principle, and that a physical system exists partially in all its possible states at once, i.e. knowing and not knowing.” 

Howard Wolowitz
http://nortebelle.deviantart.com/art/Howard-Wolowitz-wallpaper-210793528

In the simplest definitions, the quantum superposition principle states that in order to be accurate, you must include every possible of a particle along with the porbability that it would be in each state.  Another way of looking at it is that a particle could exist simultaneously in multiple “mutually-exclusive”  states at once.  The paper from Berkeley brought up the interesting future of computers.  They addressed how much additional computational power a quantum computer could have, but they also addressed how quantum superpositions that are being used for such things are very fragile.  Berkeley said that the furthest progress is a reasearch team being able to factor the number 15. 

This was quite a small snippet of science in this episode, but it does seem that they got it right.  The analogy between what they told Howard and this scietific principle seems to be pretty accurate. 

In the coming weeks, I hope to address the scientific university that all of the characters work at, the California Institute of Technology. 

Sources:

http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Quantum_superposition.html

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/83863/Quantum_Superposition,_Mass_and_General_Relativity.pdf;jsessionid=A0306B4898ABBE773F13421F46D05B3E?sequence=1

http://www.oocities.org/athens/acropolis/2606/superpos.htm

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/algorithms/chap10.pdf

The Big Bang Theory episode from last week had Sheldon, Leonard, and Howard attempting to inspire middle school girls into pursuing careers in science.  During this adventure, Sheldon brings up one of most famous women in scientific history, Madame Curie.  Sheldon introduces her as “the Polish born, French educated, codiscoverer of radioactivity.”  He goes on to tell the class of girls how Madame Curie died from her research, and how they can be just like her.  Joking aside, much of what Sheldon told the students about Madame Curie was correct.  So, for this week I wanted to investigate a little further into the life of the famous female scientist, Madame Curie.

Madame Curie was born Maria Sklodowska on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland.  One of the main role models in her life was her father, Vladislav, a physics and mathematics professor.  Maria Sklodowska excelled in her academics and when she it was time for her to go to college, she attended what was called the “Floating University.”  Being a woman in a nation under the control of the Russian Czar,  she did not have many options other than this illegal night school.  Maria and her older sister agreed that they would help each other afford their future educations.  While one would be in school, the other would work and help the other pay for it.  Maria Sklodowska went on to get her master’s degrees in physics and math from the University of Paris. 

She received the name that she is known for, Madame Curie, when she was looking for laborator space.  She was introduced to the man whom she would later marry, Physicist Pierre Curie, while she found space to work in his lab.  Her major contributions to science were her naming and discovery of radioactivity, and her discovery of radium and polonium.  Madame Curie was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, and was also the first woman to get a doctorate in science.  Unfortunately, as Sheldon tells the students, Madame Curie’s dangerous research led to her demise. 

For more information on Madame Curie, I recommend this website:

http://www.aip.org/history/curie/contents.htm

Last week’s episode of The Big Bang Theory had one main scientific moment.  It has long been known that Amy is a neurobiologist.  It has been introduced in previous episodes that she has been studying nicotine addiction in primates.  This episode had her monkeys in a stage of nicotine withdrawal after they were cut back on cigarettes.  Everyone knows that nicotine is an addictive drug, but I decided to investigate how primates are involved with nicotine addiction studies.

The Big Bang Theory

Nicotine and its effects on primates have been studied very extensively over the last few decades.  Primates along with mice and rats seem to be the primary animals used in this type of testing.  In The Big Bang Theory, it was always referenced that Amy’s monkeys would be actually smoking the cigarettes to get the nicotine.  While this is true for some studies, and primate can smoke cigarettes, the primary method of giving the monkeys nicotine seems to be through injection.  I came across many discussions of how the primate test subjects could self-administer their nicotine by pressing a lever.  Many of the studies would slowly increase the amount of times that the monkey would have to hit the lever to get administered a dose of nicotine.  This is what truly revealled the addictive nature of nicotine.  The monkeys would be willing to hit that lever hundreds of times so that they would get their nicotine. 

One of the more recent examples of this sort of research was released in June 2012 by Weill Cornell Medical College.  Researchers there came up with a vaccine that could prevent nicotine addiction in mice.  The researchers would genetically modifiy some liver cells to produce nicotine bonding antibodies.  These antibodies would capture the nicotine once it entered the bloodstream, and prevent it from reaching the brain (where the nicotine addiction happens).  This vaccine has proven itself in mice, but the researchers say that they will soon move into primate and eventually human testing. 

So, it appears that monkeys and other animals can play a major role in scientific testing.  Unfortunately, this is not a wonderful option, but it is the best means that we have currently.   

Sources:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/06/27/researchers-develop-vaccine-to-treat-nicotine-addiction/

http://www.iibce.edu.uy/escuela/pdf/Nicotine_addiction_and_nicotinic_receptors.pdf

http://www.nfcr.org/in-the-news-2012/1674

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2005/09/07/research-explores-nicotine-addiction/

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0000230

http://weill.cornell.edu/news/releases/wcmc/wcmc_2012/06_27_12b.shtml

Last night’s new episode of The Big Bang Theory was centered around Leonard and Sheldon fighting.  Leonard decides to move in with Penny, and Amy decides that she will move in with Sheldon.  Unfortunately, neither Penny nor Sheldon want their new roommates.  The episode ends with everyone returning to where they belong.  One of the scientific topics brought up was soy and its possibly harmful effects on the human body.  Sheldon says that Leonard’s drinking soy milk is making him more feminine.  He continues by stating that soy mimics estrogen and is changing his attitude.  What is interesting, is that this staple in many peoples’ lives might actually have questionable effects. 

Soy Products

 Soy has been promoted as a healthy choice for quite awhile now, but some studies are linking it to some harmful health effects.  Soy contains isoflavones (a plant compund that mimics estrogen, Scientific American) which are shown to be helpful in many aspects, but research is starting to show that too much of them might actually make you worse off.  Some research suggests that these compounds help prevent cancer, while others say that that too much of them can actually promote cancer.  Scientific American’s article identified a specific isoflavone in soy that can cause quite a few reproductive issues in women.  Men’s health effects seem to have less definitive answers.  One of the major concerns of the studies is for developing children.  Over 25% of infant’s formulas contain soy. 

It seems very important that the studies continue to determine the health effects of soy products on humans, and especially infants.  What has to be remembered, is that too much of anything is not good.  This is pretty solid fact, and it definitely seems like Sheldon was on  the right track with his comment, but I find it unlikely that Leonard is being substantially affected by the amount of soy he is eating.  

Sources:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=soybean-fertility-hormone-isoflavones-genistein

http://sabrinascrossing.blogspot.com/2012/03/soy-part-ii-fermented-vs-unfermented.html

 http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/09/20/does_soy_act_like_estrogen_in_the_body/

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/soy-000326.htm

http://www.med.nyu.edu/content?ChunkIID=21778

Last week’s episode was mainly focused  around Sheldon having to collaborate with Barry Kripke.  One of the side stories of this episode was Raj and Howard wanting to get action figures of themselves.  When they get disappointed with the action figures they buy online, they decide that they would like to make their own with a 3d printer.  3d printers are a very interesting new technology that as Raj said,it is “every engineer’s dream to own one.”  Raj goes on to say that “anything that you can design, you can make out of plastic.”  Scientifically this is only true to an extent.

I have been fortunate to enough to have learned a little about 3d printers in my engineering design class and through my high school robotics team.  In my class, we were able to design a 3-dimensional computer model using SolidWorks software and then we had a RepRap 3d printer make our model.  These simple 3d printers are substantially limited in what they can create.  We could only produce objects that were 8 cm by 8 cm by 8 cm.  The larger caveat of these simple 3d printers is that they cannot print anything that has material over empty space.  So, in other words, the printers need to print ontop of layers that they had already printed.  There are some methods of getting around this, if your model has to have an overhang, but there still is a very clear restriction on what you can get these printers to create. 

My other experience with 3d printers is from my high school robotics team.  One of our team’s professional mentors owns his own 3d printing business.  He has much higher quality machines, and is able to make much more precise models.  His company is contracted out by others to create their prototypes in real life.  He has printed many parts for our robot, and has allowed us to make customized mounting for parts of our robot.  His machine, while it still does have limitations, can print many more types of objects.  Not only can his 3d printer make larger sized objects, but his printer can also create parts with overhangs.  More advanced 3d printers can build support structures out of materials that dissolve away in an acid bath.  So, the printer is able to make the overhang becuase of the extra support material it prints in, and then, the part is put into a bath for the support material to dissolve away.  The possibilities can be almost endless with 3d printers, but there definitely are limitations.  For more information on 3d printers, see my sources below.

An example of some of the 3d printed parts we used on our robot:

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/12/07/manufacturing-the-future-10-trends-to-come-in-3d-printing/

http://objet.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOxZcpyKmzM&list=UUFYr58QuufVkP97L2Mifbow&index=1&feature=plcp

This episode of The Big Bang Theory occurs right before Christmas, when Leonard, Penny, and Sheldon were watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Sheldon brings up how appropriate it is for Penny’s sadness.  He states that “Tears seem appropiate. Enlargement of the heart muscle, or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, is a serious disease which can lead to congestive heart failure.”

I remember back to my high school biology teacher telling us about this disease.  Just the phrase, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, was enough to make me remember it.  The condition Sheldon describes is very real and life-threatening. 

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is described as the thickening of the heart muscle.  This thickening causes the heart valves to leak, and also makes it a lot harder for the heart to pump blood.  This can lead to sudden cardiac arrest and death.  Below is a diagram showing what an enlarged heart looks like.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is mostly found in younger people, and is the most well known cause of sudden death in athletes.  Treatments include medications, blood thinners, pacemakers, defibrillators, and surgeries. 

So it seems as Sheldon says, tears of sadness would be appropriate for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001243/

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000192.htm