A hit CBS TV show is benefiting from UI research and expertise. Amy Young, a Web and database developer at the Materials Computation Center, also is a script consultant for the show “Numb3rs,” which draws about 11 million viewers each week.
“We look at the scripts while they are in the formative process, give feedback on language used in the script and provide equations that are used in the show’s graphics or animation,” Young said.
Young is one of five regular script consultants on the show. Others are physicists Eric Weisstein and Michael Trott, and mathematician Ed Pegg Jr., from Wolfram Research in Champaign, and Gary Lorden, head of Caltech’s math department.
“When we receive the script we have about three or four days to look over it and make our notes,” she said. “It also helps because the writers are on California time so I can submit my work in the evening and they will have it at the end of their business day.”
Young met the other script consultants in 1992 after graduating from the UI with an architecture degree and beginning her first job at Wolfram.
“This work is fun,” Young said. “It’s very hard for me to read a script and know how it will turn out when it’s filmed. This is our fourth season and I’ve read over 60 of the scripts and it’s still hard to predict things. It’s always surprising to see the transition between a script and the actual film.”
Young said other aspects of the show are significant to her as well.
“The role of women and women scientists is a hot topic right now,” she said. “Despite many studies trying to explain the low numbers of women in science and millions of government dollars spent, science still hasn’t mitigated the way the medicine or law fields have.”
Young’s 14-year-old niece watches the show regularly.
“It feels rewarding to know that more young girls are becoming interested in science and math through watching ‘Numb3rs,’ ” Young said. “My niece would rather stay at home and watch the show than go out with her friends. Her teachers have even used examples from the program in her classes. The feedback from the show has been amazing.”
The positive feedback paid off recently when “Numb3rs” won a public service award from the National Science Foundation for “contributions toward increasing scientific and mathematical literacy on a broad scale.”
“The show’s creator recognized our work and invited the consultants to the award dinner in Washington, D.C.,” Young said. “We got to eat on the eighth floor of the State Department, which is filled with beautiful antiques, including one of Thomas Jefferson’s desks.”
Working on the show also has allowed Young to understand other aspects of the TV industry.
“I definitely have a fuller appreciation of how much work goes into a single TV episode,” she said. “The math in ‘Numb3rs’ really does pertain to the topic being presented and the show tries to be as accurate as possible. Each equation or graphic you see flash by really pertains to the situation in the script.”
Young also said the script consultants must be flexible and willing to work with the show’s writers.
“We can’t be disappointed when an idea or suggestion we had doesn’t make it to the final cut of the show,” she said. “We have to understand there are many budget and time constraints we don’t know about. If we tell them something in the script is inaccurate, we always provide an alternative or ask them to consider other options. We also suggest new research that could make the show more contemporary so the ideas they’re discussing aren’t 10 years old.”
As much as the show tries to be accurate, Young said it is important for it to be entertaining as well.
“The show ‘M*A*S*H’ didn’t teach people how to be surgeons or about the Korean War,” she said. “The purpose of these shows are ultimately to entertain. In our show, the hero is a scientific researcher and that’s a bonus no matter how you look at it. There are so few shows that feature scientists, their research and the academic world. This show is giving the public a view they don’t usually receive.”
Young, however, doesn’t have the problem of being underexposed to the sciences. Her mother is an aerospace engineer and chemist and her father is a retired physicist.
“Working on the show is almost a hobby,” she said. “I also love gardening, ballet dancing and biking. I hope to continue providing feedback for ‘Numb3rs’ for as long as they need me.”
