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The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization
Leonard, Sheldon and Raj are all hunched over Howard's laptop and causing electronic equipment to be turned up, down and off. Penny interrupts this geek-meet and asks them to turn down the volume down on the stereo, which they duly do, but not by simply adjusting the volume control, but by "sending a signal around the world via the internet." Penny's unimpressed by this mini-marvel, as she is when a flock of remote control cars complete with webcams and driven by internet perverts, go chasing after her.
Leonard finds a letter in the trash from the Institute for Experimental Physics. They've invited Leonard and Sheldon to present their findings, but Sheldon has "no interest in standing in the Rose Room of the Pasadena Marriot in front of a group of judgemental strangers who wouldn't recognise true genius if it stood in front of them giving a speech". As self-proclaimed "leading author", Sheldon forbids Leonard from presenting their findings, but Leonard ignores his request.
Penny's tries to find Leonard a suitable outfit in his wardrobe for the occasion, but in the end has to settle for a frightful red corduroy suit. Penny then bumps into Sheldon collecting his mail and offends him by saying that Leonard "told me himself that without your little idea he could never have come up with experiment thing." Sheldon never wants to talk to Leonard again and attempts to recreate a scene from Scanners where a character forces a man's brain to explode. He doesn't succeed.
At the conference, Leonard presentation goes down very well until Sheldon appears disguised in a hood and a pair of sunglasses. In front of the audience, Sheldon disparages Leonard's work and once again attempts, and fails, to make Leonard's brain explode. The argument then develops into a nerdy brawl and Howard's filming it all on his cell phone. The footage, thanks to Howard, later becomes a feature video on YouTube. That's not the only thing Howard's been fiddling with on the internet. Penny discovers a picture of herself and Howard on Facebook entitled "me and my girlfriend". Penny also tries the brain explosion trick...
