There's been a recent upward trend in the number of British students taking physics classes in high school and university. Some attribute the trend to the popular science documentaries hosted by Brian Cox on British television, but others have pointed out that it may be the result of imported episodes from the wildly popular sitcom,?The Big Bang Theory.
Institute of Physics (IoP) spokesman, Joe Winters, told The Guardian that: "The rise in popularity of physics appears to be due to a range of factors, including Brian's public success, the might of the Large Hadron Collider and, we're sure, the popularity of shows like The Big Bang Theory."
Others are dismissive of the impact a sitcom can have on interesting people in science, but most scientists I know first got engaged with science through popular culture (mostly science fiction) rather than through the science itself. For that reason, I've been taking the opportunity to review episodes of The Big Bang Theory and including descriptions of the science that shows up in each episode.?For those keeping score at home, we've added the reviews for three more of the season 5 episodes:
One valid criticism of the show is that for the first couple of seasons, the show was heavily dominated by a male-dominated view of science. As one blogger asks, does the uptick include girls? The last couple of seasons, which have brought on Amy and Bernadette as PhD-wielding female cohorts, transforming the show into something of a geek version of Friends ... a transformation that allows the show to explore nerd culture from a more diverse girl perspective, but which also brings its own challenges.
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