How Sheldon changed science in real life

Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory has become a pop culture icon, so much so that even before the series’ finale, the character won out as Young Sheldon for talking about his childhood.

The character’s creation came when Bill Brady, the series’ co-creator who worked in software programming, described it to an old co-worker of Chuck Lorre. The guy Brady used to work with was great but he wasn’t very good at interacting with others, so Laurie replied, “Wait a minute, I’ve never seen that guy on TV.”

When they prepared for the Young Sheldon chapter, the inspiration came from the life of actor Jim Parsons himself, who gave life to the character in The Big Band Theory. According to an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lowry was inspired to produce the new series by the star’s nephew.

“The beginning was a call from Jim Parsons, who sent me a video of his 10-year-old nephew from Texas who was prodigy, brilliant, extraordinary, out of the box, absurdly smart.” The producer recalled, and continued, “And Jim asked, ‘Is there anything we can do with this? ‘ I said, ‘Well, if we want to do a show about a brilliant young man, a comedy, we have to include that in our show. This is Sheldon Cooper’s story.

But it is not only art that imitates life, the character has also affected the real world in surprising ways.

The bee is named after Sheldon

A species of bee was discovered in 2012, and this name refers to Sheldon’s famous phrase. The orchid bee Euglossa bazinga was named by its discoverer, André Nemésio, of the Federal University of Uberlândia. The insect is found in the Brazilian cerrado.

The scientific paper on the discovery describes the reasons for choosing the name: “The specific title honors the intelligent, funny, and lovable character “nerd” Sheldon Cooper, brilliantly played by American actor James Joseph “Jim” Parsons, in the CBS television series “The Big Bang Theory.” ‘Bazinga’, Sheldon Cooper’s favorite comic expression, which he uses when deceiving someone, was chosen to represent the genre. Euglossa bazinga tricked us for a while, due to its similarity to E.gnita, which led us to use ‘bazinga’,

In addition to the bee, there is also an asteroid named after the character known as 246247 Sheldoncooper.

The scientists’ love for the series was not surprising. In an article for Physics Today, Margaret Whitkamp, ​​curator of the Smithsonian American Space Museum, writes about the way the series portrays characters in an empathetic manner, as opposed to other products that use stereotypes to introduce scholars into their work. Therefore, many scientists are flattered by the way the Big Bang theory depicts them.

The Big Band Theory and Young Sheldon are available on HBO Max.