The Higgs Boson Observation

The Higgs Boson Observation is the third episode of the sixth season of the CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. This episode first aired on October 11, 2012.

Summary
Sheldon hires a female graduate assistant who first worries Amy until she sees that she is flirting with Leonard.

Extended Plot
Penny brings in a box for Sheldon from his mother and he tips her a dollar. Sheldon had his journals and research he wrote as a child sent to him. Since the verification of the existence of the Higgs boson particle, the scientist that postulated its existence a half a century ago, Peter Higgs, could be heading to a Nobel Prize. Sheldon wants to check his earlier work to see if he already hit upon an idea to get his Nobel Prize. He needs someone to read through these notebooks since he thinks his time is too important to do the task himself. First he asks Leonard, who then declines. Penny volunteers, however she couldn't even understand the title of a paper he wrote at the age of five: A Proof That Algebraic Topology Can Never Have a Non-Self-Contradictory Set of Abelian Groups. At Leonard's suggestion, he hires a grad student, an attractive student named Alex Jensen. She does flatter him during the interview and thinks it's an honor to work for him. Sheldon makes sure that she doesn't do drugs including coffee, has no hearing loss to due to her ear infection and paid all her parking tickets. She is willing to do everything he asks her to do. Leonard felt that she seemed nice and tells her "May God have mercy on your soul" for working with Sheldon. Raj is attracted to her, but she wondered what his problem was.

Penny is giving Amy a makeover which she wants to show Sheldon. She tells her that if it leads to phone sex, she will have to leave the room. When Alex answers Amy's video call to Sheldon, Amy is shocked when she learns that Alex is a girl. She tells Amy that Sheldon left a message not to be disturbed unless it's Stephen Hawking, his mother or himself from the future. Alex did take a message. She mentions this to Penny who wondered if he even noticed. Amy replies that she is more worried about her than Sheldon especially when she hangs around that wonderful face of his and not fall in love with it. Amy gets Penny to go to the Caltech to meet his new assistant. Amy bursts into his office, but doesn't find Sheldon there. Amy leaves her scent to keep Sheldon interested and admits that she's done the same thing in Penny's apartment before they became best friends.

In the cafeteria, Alex brings Sheldon his yogurt to his usual exact specifications, but she can't remember if she had taken the stem off the cherry on the bottom. Leonard invites her to sit with them, but Sheldon doesn't want her to after seeing how servants are treated on a PBSBritish series (referring to the show Downtown Abbey). Leonard still tells her to sit down and impishly tries to get her to talk to Raj about her dissertation about asteroids. Leonard continues to kid Raj and Sheldon and she starts getting flirty (though Leonard ignores it). Amy observes this and tells Penny that she doesn't have to worry about Sheldon, though Penny has to deal with Alex. Penny seems surprised. In her car on the way home, Amy tells Penny that Alex was definitely courting Leonard. Penny says that she isn't worried about her flirting. Amy explains that that is her prefrontal cortex of her brain talking while her limbic system is telling her that the flirting is happening because he is desirable. She again confesses to Amy that she isn't sure how she feels about Leonard. She denies that Alex bothers her, until Amy finally gets her to admit it.

That night while having wine and hors d'oeuvres, Penny keeps asking about his day, however Leonard never mentions Sheldon's new female assistant. Sheldon shows up with Alex, announcing that she may have found what he was looking for in a grade school science project report, A Rederivation of Maxwell's EquationsRegarding Electromagnetism, that contains a possible new approach for calculating ferromagnetic hysteresis and could be his ticket to a Nobel Prize. Penny introduces herself. Alex mistakes Penny for his assistant. Penny replies that they were working on a five-year project. Alex replies that she is sure that a lot of people would want to work with someone as talented as Leonard. Penny quips that a lot of people can't and then she takes him to her apartment because her limbic system wants to take his pants off. As Penny is leaving with Leonard, Alex remarks that she seems nice sounding like she has no ulterior motives outside of working with the noted Dr. Cooper.

Meanwhile, Howard tells Bernadette that being cooped up in "this old tin can " for weeks on end is getting to him. He asks her to drop something so he can watch it fall. In another video chat, Howard tells her that due to the delay of the capsule that is supposed to pick up the astronauts, he will have to stay in space for an additional 7 - 10 days. He is suffering bad anxiety attacks, starts sounding paranoid and gives her crazy ideas on how she can rescue him. He also starts talking to her in code. Eventually, he is given a sedative by the other astronauts, which makes him feel better, though he begins acting strangely afterwards, such as taking off his pants and wind milling in the capsule. Bernadette then tells him to put his pants back on.

Critics
"As I always maintain, the show is at its best when new characters interact with the established eccentricities of the cast. Sure enough Alex's arrival prompts several fun moments...The writers are certainly committed to Howard’s space travel and I guess you won’t see anything like it on another sit com. His misery at being kept up there for a long period of time makes perfect sense and I did laugh at his fearful statement that the Russians “left dogs up here in the 60s!”...This was pretty good. Not funny throughout but by far the best of the season so far." - The TV Critic's Review

Trivia

 * Sheldon hires an assistant, Alex Jensen, in this episode. Previously, in The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem, Ramona Nowitzki served as Sheldon's assistant, albeit voluntarily with ulterior motives.
 * Like Dennis Kim, Alex is another physics doctoral candidate with a degree from Stanford University.
 * Alex Jensen's father is a SETI astronomer.
 * This episode extends Raj's expertise in the field of planetary astronomy to include looking for Trojan asteroids at the Earth-Sun L5 Lagrange point.
 * The office Sheldon acquired following Professor Rothman's retirement in The Rothman Disintegration is featured in this episode. Herein, the issue of the The Journal of Physical Chemistry A with a picture of Sheldon on the cover, first appearing in The Beta Test Initiation, can be observed framed on a wall.
 * Sheldon gives Penny $1 for her labor to bring him the box of journals, quite like what he did in The Gothowitz Deviation (S3E03) except with chocolate.
 * Raj is interested in Alex.
 * It seems that Bernadette's working place is shown for the first time. Also, a blue sign with word ZANGEN in an ellipse can be seen on her uniform, maybe the name of the company where she works.

Quotes
Sheldon: Do you know about Higgs boson?

Penny: ''Of course. It's, it's been in the news,and it's a very famous boson.''

Sheldon: Flattery will get you nowhere.

Alex : It's not flattery if it's true.

Amy: You're right, I don't have to worry, that skank is your problem, not mine.

Amy: (to Penny) If my new look leads to phone sex, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room.

Penny: I'm just a blonde monkey to you, aren't I?

Sheldon: You said it, not me.

Reference

 * Taping report courtesy of Kyzzx.