UNL physicist contributed plot point to last night’s 'Big Bang Theory'

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/go/unl-physicist-contributed-plot-point-to-last-night-s-big/article_916a67b4-ae30-11e4-9e44-6b9043d0ed58.html

POSTED: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2015 12:47 PM
By Micah Mertes / World-Herald staff writer

The work of a University of Nebraska-Lincoln physicist was a plot point on Thursday’s episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” UNL reports.

Ken Bloom wrote on the real-life blog Quantum Diaries about the fictional work of “Big Bang” characters Leonard and Sheldon.
Bloom, an associate professor of physics and astronomy, wrote specifically about a paper the duo wrote on super fluid helium. As Sheldon is a theoretical physicist and Leonard an experimental physicist, their collaboration is rare, Bloom said in the blog.

This collaboration reflects a real-life one Bloom took part in. Bloom, an experimentalist, contributed to the Large Hadron Collider experiments in Switzerland, a massive endeavor that involved the work of many, many physicists, on each side of the experimental-theoretical divide.

Bloom got involved with show through his friend David Saltzberg, a California physicist who serves as “The Big Bang Theory’s” science adviser. It was Bloom’s idea to write a fake post on the real blog to flesh out the really popular TV show.

In the episode, Sheldon and Leonard co-author a paper following a scientific breakthrough. They’re thrilled to see their work’s getting written about on Quantum Diaries, but they get into a petty war with a troll commenter, who turns out to be Stephen Hawking.

Items below at link.

Read more about the “Big Bang” connection here.

Read Bloom’s blog post here.

Or just watch the episode here.

[Gman]

1. Saw it. It was funny too

And Sheldon once claimed Hawking as a "friend" because they were playing Words With Friends. Hawking humorously would not let Sheldon address him informally.

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. I saw the episode ... it was pretty good ...

I especially liked how they (the writers) handled the trolling part.