Chapter 53: The Big Bang Theory
I ignored Anna remark.
"So, what's with this influx of blonde girls?" I changed the subject, clearly referring to the new teacher.
"Are you complaining?" Anna asked.
"Not really, but I have a girlfriend, so I'm not that excited either," I remarked
Anna glanced over at the other table where Marissa, Summer, and Haley were sitting. "Which one is it?"
"The brunette," I replied.
Anna took another look. "I assume the one who's not Seth's huge crush."
"Haley is Jake's cousin," Seth clarified.
I raised an eyebrow, "Dude, Anna's been here less than a day and she already knows you have a crush on Haley?"
"We were talking about sailing," Seth tried to explain.
Anna kept going, "And he explained why he named his boat Little Comet..."
I winced.
"I was twelve!" Seth shouted. "Can we go back to the new teacher? She's twenty-three."
and we talked a bit more.
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Later that day, I went to the new Pritchett-Moore Complex, in Brentwood, near UCLA, which had expanded beyond a math center to include a physics wing (thanks to graphene). More advanced laboratories were still under construction for the physics department.
"How are you doing, Leonard? How are the experiments going?" I asked the young physicist.
He greeted me enthusiastically and reported, "We've just completed another material. Now, besides graphene, we've isolated five other 2D materials: h-BN (hexagonal boron nitride), MoS₂ (molybdenum disulfide), WS₂ (tungsten disulfide), MoSe₂ (molybdenum diselenide), and WSe₂ (tungsten diselenide)."
"Great!" I exclaimed
He looked unsure. "Are you sure it's okay for me to put my name on it?"
"Come on, Leonard, put some faith in yourself," I told him, patting his shoulder. "You're part of the team."
I changed the subject. "You look a little tired. You're not staying here overnight, are you?"
"No," he denied. "I wish. My new roommate can be a difficult person sometimes," Leonard admitted, though his expression suggested it was more than just sometimes.
"Who is he?"
"His name's Sheldon Cooper. He's also a physicist," he revealed.
"Sheldon Cooper?" I gazed surprised. "He's my friend's cousin."
"Wow, what a coincidence," Leonard said, "just hope she's nothing like Sheldon." he joked.
"Nah, she's fine," I replied, going back to reading the report he'd handed me.
Then another person entered the lab. "Dr. Hofstadter," she greeted, but froze when she noticed me. "Dr. Pritchett..." she finished shyly.
"Future Dr. Jensen," Leonard smiled, trying to ease her nerves.
"God, Alex, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Jake?" I lightly scolded her. "I'm not a fan of all that 'Doctor' stuff."
As for the 'Dr.' title, I had received honorary PhDs from both Caltech and Harvard - and many more were likely on the way.
It probably wouldn't take long before the media found out, even with DARPA and the NSA trying to keep it quiet.
"You're like Newton, Einstein, Gauss... none of them are remembered or called by their first name," Alex said, looking at me like a fangirl.
Leonard chuckled. "She kinda has a point."
I shook my head and began writing on the board everything I'd been working on. It was enough to fill four massive boards.
"Hey, Frank (Wilczek), James, Gerald - I didn't hear you come in," I acknowledged, giving them a quick nod.
Gerald approached, squinting at the equations. "What's all this about?" he asked, trying to make sense of the board.
"It's the new problem I'm trying to solve," I explained. "The behavior of electrons in graphene seems to replicate endoscopic representations of unitary and orthogonal groups."
"If that's correct, you'd be unifying quantum field theory with algebraic geometry," Frank noted thoughtfully.
The others stared at the board, Leonard and Alex with their mouths wide open, realizing the magnitude of idea: unifying two branches - physics and mathematics.
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Three days passed, and Thanksgiving arrived.
I was in the living room when Jay came downstairs and asked, "What is that in your hand?"
I showed him by shooting a dart his way. "Nerf guns. I bought a few for Luke's party."
"Perfect with my present," he said, showing the crossbow he was holding. "One for hunting, one for tickling the prey," he added dryly.
Then Gloria entered the room as well
"Hey, Gloria, you got any idea how to wrap one of these things?" He pointed the crossbow in his hands as if he were aiming it.
"Is that a crossbow?" Gloria asked, surprised.
Jay looked proud. "Yeah. Am I the greatest grandpa in the world or what?"
"We can't give Luke a crossbow," Gloria protested. "He pokes himself in the eye every time he uses a straw."
"Are you kidding? I had one when I was his age," Jay argued.
"Yeah, but we're not living in the Age of Discovery anymore," I remarked sarcastically. "And relax, Gloria - Claire's gonna confiscate that thing like... forever."
Hell would freeze over before Claire let Luke wander around with a crossbow (with arrows).
"Am I charming?" Manny asked as soon as he appeared.
Jay gave an exasperated look. "Oh, boy."
"Of course you're charming," Gloria promptly replied. "Who said you weren't?"
"No one. But there's this girl at my school, and I want her to like me," Manny confessed. "I need your advice, Jake and Jay," he added, looking at us.
"Really?" Jay muttered, raising a brow.
"She's gonna be at Luke's party," Manny continued.
"So we're finally talking about a girl your age?" I asked, sitting down on the couch across from Manny, with Jay beside me.
"Yes, but she's more mature for our age."
"Sure she is, pal."
Jay and I taught him how to be the funny guy since the other options were a bit scarce.
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Author Note: Geim and Novoselov won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for graphene and its study.
Jake did that and expanded it to other two-dimensional materials (in real life, others group did the isolation of others 2Ds materials).
He is the leader of the project, but the entire experimental physics work and the writing of the paper were carried out by Leonard and his team.
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