- When Sheldon hires a female grad student to assist him, a jealous Amy asks Penny to help her spy on them. On the space station, Howard begins behaving erratically.
- Sheldon needs someone to read through the works he did during his elementary school days, to find out if he has made a scientific breakthrough that was Nobel Prize-Worthy, since he thinks his time is too important to do the task himself. He eventually hires an attractive Physics grad student named Alex Jensen. When Alex answers Amy's video call to Sheldon, Amy gets shocked to learn that Alex is a girl. Amy and Penny go to Caltech to spy on them. In the cafeteria, it turns out that Alex is flirting with Leonard, much to Amy's relief and Penny's surprise. Penny has to consider that Leonard is attractive to other women. Meanwhile, Howard tells Bernadette that he has a layover in space of an additional 7 - 10 days. He is sick of his time in space and is having bad anxiety attacks that is causing erratic behavior.—laird-3
- Sheldon believes that his Nobel Prize winning project is buried somewhere deep within the many projects on which he's worked ever since he was an infant. On Leonard's advice, Sheldon decides to hire a grad student to help him sift through all his old materials. She is the beautiful Alex Jensen, who is in awe of Sheldon and ends up also acting as his administrative assistant in every capacity. Beyond Alex's generally workmanlike relationship with Sheldon, her arrival onto the scene affects Amy, Raj, Leonard and Penny all in slightly different ways, and for most not in good ways. Meanwhile, Howard's Soyuz rocket ride back to Earth has been delayed by at least a week. Anxiety ridden Howard isn't sure if he will survive the delay.—Huggo
- 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 declines.
Penny volunteers; however, she couldn't even understand the title of a paper Sheldon 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 graduate student, an attractive student named Alex Jensen (Margo Harshman). 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 due an ear infection she experienced years ago, and that she has paid all her parking tickets. She is willing to do everything he asks her to do. Raj is attracted to her, but since Raj wouldn't speak to Sheldon and Leonard in front of Alex, Alex wondered what the matter with Raj was.
Penny is giving Amy a makeover which she wants to show Sheldon. Amy tells Penny that if it leads to phone sex, Penny 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. Alex tells Amy that Sheldon left a message not to be disturbed unless it's Stephen Hawking, his mother or himself from the future. Amy is upset and confides to Penny that while Sheldon told her that he had a new assistant named Alex, he did not tell Amy that Alex was a girl, to which Penny wondered if he even noticed.
Amy gets Penny to go to Caltech to meet Sheldon's new assistant. Amy bursts into Sheldon's office, but doesn't find him there though does leave her scent by grabbing various items and licking them or rubbing them into her armpits. 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 with the exception of leaving one cherry stem on the bottom, leaving Sheldon "disappointed." Leonard invites her to join them, but Sheldon doesn't want her to after seeing how servants are treated on a PBS British series (referring to the show Downton Abbey). Leonard urges her to sit down anyway and impishly suggests that she talk to Raj about her dissertation about asteroids. Predictably, Raj silently gets up and moves over to the next table, prompting a smug look from Leonard and a silent head shake from Sheldon. Leonard continues speaking gregariously to Alex and she starts getting flirty, laughing at Leonard's jokes and complimenting him on his sense of humor. Amy and Penny secretly observe her actions from the doorway, and it becomes clear to Amy that she doesn't have to worry about Sheldon since his assistant appears interested in Leonard. ("That "bad person" YOUR problem, not mine").
Penny downplays these actions by insisting that everything is fine and that she remains uncertain of where her relationship with Leonard is right now. Amy explains that although the PreFrontal cortex of Penny's brain is telling her there's nothing to worry about, the Limbic system is telling her that Alex's attraction to Leonard must mean that he's desirable. Penny goes back and forth before eventually admitting to herself: "OK it bothers me!"
That night while having beer and Hors d'oeuvres, Penny keeps asking Leonard about his day, but he never mentions Sheldon's new female assistant. Sheldon then shows up with Alex, announcing that she may have found something in his grade school science project report that could be his ticket to a Nobel Prize. Penny introduces herself to Alex, who mistakes her for Leonard's assistant. Penny replies that they were working on a five-year experiment (an on-off relationship), which confuses both Leonard and Sheldon. 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 Leonard to her apartment because her Limbic system wants to take his pants off (i.e. have sex
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 Soyuz 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 captured by the other astronauts, held down and given a sedative. It 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.
Title reference: Sheldon, observing the recent success of the Higgs Boson particle, wants to unearth a discovery he may have made during his childhood that could earn him a Nobel Prize.
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