The Big Bang Theory, Season 12, Episode 15 (February 7, 2019) -- "The Donation Oscillation"

[Wheelz]

@Dewey_Finn

It’s not clear what time of year it is on the show, but in the real world, right about now is when nominations are due for the Nobel Prizes for this year, although the awards aren’t until the autumn. I don’t know if they’ll mention who gets the Nobel Prize before the show ends, but I doubt that it will be mentioned.

While it may be interesting to never find out for sure whether Sheldon gets his Nobel, this show isn’t much for subtlety or ambiguity. I predict that the storyline will be resolved in an unrealistically accelerated manner (but it’s a sitcom, so who cares) in either of two ways:

a) Sheldon and Amy will win together, or
b) Sheldon and the team from Fermi will win, launching a crisis of conscience, and Sheldon will either decline the award, or accept it with Amy’s blessing.

Lorre and company may have something more creative up their sleeves, but probably not (again, it’s a sitcom, so that’s OK).

I was sort of hoping they would have filmed a scene aboard the actual Vomit Comet, instead of the cheesy special effects we ended up getting. I’m sure they can afford it, but there were probably other factors that made it less than feasible (and, sitcom, etc.).

@panache45

I was really hoping we’d seen the last of Anu. Well, she’s back, and looking really disgusting.

I don’t mind Anu, though I can see where some people may find the character off-putting. Making nasty comments about the actress’s looks though, seems like a shitty thing to do.

[Dewey_Finn]

Perhaps a flash forward to Sheldon receiving the Nobel Prize as a 75-year-old?

[silenus]

@Dewey_Finn

Perhaps a flash forward to Sheldon receiving the Nobel Prize as a 75-year-old?

With Amy and Leonard saying “It’s about time!” since both of them won Nobels decades previously!

[Folacin]

@Wheelz

two ways:

a) Sheldon and Amy will win together, or
b) Sheldon and the team from Fermi will win, launching a crisis of conscience, and Sheldon will either decline the award, or accept it with Amy’s blessing.

If Fermi includes Sheldon in their nomination. I would think they would, but if Caltech has a competing proposal?

How do these things normally work - does the theorist generally share the prize with the experimental people, or do the experimentals sometimes run off with by themselves?

[Drunky_Smurf]

@GuanoLad

Blimey! Penny looked… impressive.

@gytalf2000

Oh, she certainly did!

@panache45

I was really hoping we’d seen the last of Anu. Well, she’s back, and looking really disgusting.

Yes, because this show is all about how the females look “hot” or “not”.

@Wheelz

Making nasty comments about the actress’s looks though, seems like a shitty thing to do.

Yeah it is.

@ivylass

FYI, a zero gravity excursion is $5400, from the one I found in my area. So Howard dropped about $20k (I don’t know how much the discount was.)

Howard did say he used his NASA connections.

[notfrommensa]

@Wheelz

While it may be interesting to never find out for sure whether Sheldon gets his Nobel, this show isn’t much for subtlety or ambiguity. I predict that the storyline will be resolved in an unrealistically accelerated manner (but it’s a sitcom, so who cares) in either of two ways:

“…(but it’s a sitcom, so who cares)…”

You clearly have not been reading the weekly Big Bang Theory threads on the SDMB.

[Wheelz]

@Folacin

If Fermi includes Sheldon in their nomination. I would think they would, but if Caltech has a competing proposal?

How do these things normally work - does the theorist generally share the prize with the experimental people, or do the experimentals sometimes run off with by themselves?

I don’t plan to go back and check the actual dialogue, but from what I recall, they said there was a rule that a maximum of 3 people can share a Nobel (no idea whether that’s actually true or not), and that Fermi either planned to, or had already, nominated Sheldon and the two Fermi guys.

So it’s my understanding that Sheldon is on both nominations, but I suppose there’s still a window for Fermi to screw him over.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Wheelz

I don’t plan to go back and check the actual dialogue, but from what I recall, they said there was a rule that a maximum of 3 people can share a Nobel (no idea whether that’s actually true or not),

Yes, that’s quite true and is causing major controversies.

What itsn’t true is that CalTech can choose who to nominate. Institutions do not nominate anyone. A variety of people, including past winners, can make nominations, but the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which gives out the prize, has the power to name who they want. Or, more formally:

The Nobel laureates are selected by the Nobel Committee for Physics, a Nobel Committee that consists of five members elected by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In the first stage that begins in September, around 3,000 people – selected university professors, Nobel Laureates in Physics and Chemistry, etc. – are sent confidential forms to nominate candidates. The completed nomination forms arrive at the Nobel Committee no later than 31 January of the following year. These nominees are scrutinized and discussed by experts who narrow it to approximately fifteen names. The committee submits a report with recommendations on the final candidates into the Academy, where, in the Physics Class, it is further discussed. The Academy then makes the final selection of the Laureates in Physics through a majority vote.[17]

The names of the nominees are never publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the prize.

As with everything television, the situation has been simplified and altered to make it watchable, if utterly unrealistic.

[ElvisL1ves]

A Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously, so there’s an easy answer: Call a hit on one of the Fermilab guys.

[ftg]

Mostly a poor episode with a few flashes of “the good old days”.

Amy and Sheldon were mostly left out until the Leonard on the couch thing. Cast bloat.

I don’t get it. Why did Raj want her along??? Isn’t that person the last one anyone would want on a guys’ adventure for a canceled wedding? It makes no sense. And of course her contribution to the bit was non-existent. Good call, Chuck.

Penny. Yeah, she’s evil. Throwing him under the bus immediately after agreeing to a plan. Good grief. Leonard needs to grow a pair and dump her. He’ll be much better off. This is not a relationship.

[Wendell_Wagner]

Interesting article about how accurate the Nobel Prize story is:

Did 'The Big Bang Theory' Get the Science Right? A Lesson in Supersymmetry...