The Big Bang Theory, explained

Rico says his father forwarded this:

Mayim Bialik (photo, left) is a neurooscientist and she plays one on television: neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on CBS’ The Big Bang Theory. Bialik was an actor long before she became a scientist. As a teenager, she starred in the television show Blossom and the movie Beaches. On the set of Blossom, Bialik’s love of science was kindled by one of her tutors, a predental student. Bialik went on to college at UCLA and finished her Ph.D in neuroscience there in 2007.
After her first son was born, Bialik and her husband realized that the life of a research professor wouldn’t provide the flexibility she wanted to spend time with her children, and she returned to acting. But she doesn’t regret the time she spent earning her degree. “There’s never a waste of study,” she says.
The Big Bang Theory is a fictional look at scientists, but Bialik says the portrayals are true to her real-life experience.  Part of the show’s charm stems from the writers being as “brilliant, nerdy, and geeky” as the characters they create, she says. “It’s not a bunch of cool, attractive people making fun of nerds. It’s a bunch of nerds making fun of nerds.”
Originally, her character had no particular occupation, but when the the producers saw ‘neuroscientst’ on Bialik’s resume, Amy Farrah Fowler became a neurobiologist. The decision means Bialik gets to offer pointers on how real biology labs work. Her character always wears a lab coat and gloves in the lab, just like a good scientist should. Now and again, Bialik corrects scientific inaccuracies in the script, but sometimes science take a backseat to gags. “I get a little twitch if something is wrong,” she says, but preserving scientific accuracy is “often more complicated that it should be for a laugh.”
Ongoing debates between Amy and her 'boyfriend' Sheldon Cooper (played by Jim Parsons; photo, right) about whose scientific discipline is better are right on the money. “I’ve had that discussion, both sober and intoxicated, in graduate school,” Bialik says. And, like her character, she’s got an argument-ending statement for any physicist who disdains brain research: “The very fact that you can think about which science is better means neuroscience rules.”

Rico says he liked her in Blossom (but couldn't watch Beaches), and she's great (as they all are) in The Big Bang Theory...