Notes

Chapter 1

1 E.g. If a date asks me how many sexual partners I’ve had, I say 8. However, in the unspoken footnote they haven’t read, I say sexual partners are like age—once you hit a certain number you stop counting. See, aren’t footnotes fun?

2 Evidence of hearth fires in Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa from ONE MILLION years ago.

Chapter 2

1 Fish genitalia are varied and unique. Some have long appendages, others do not.

2 Pheromones.

3 Joule: a unit of energy equal to the work done by a force of one newton acting through one meter. (This is sexier than it sounds.)

Chapter 3

1 Five-sigma: probability of 3×10^-7, or about a 1 in 3.5 million chance. If it’s five-sigma, it’s the real deal.

2 Salubrious: promoting well-being. Used in a sentence? The salubrious effects of sex while paragliding are manifold.

Chapter 7

1 Or anyone else. My rule? One and done. Always. Dating is a distraction.

Chapter 10

1 I don’t know if it’s the red tie. It could be. It might be. I’ll never know.

Chapter 12

1 The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid. It’s the world’s largest computing grid, with 170 computing facilities across 42 countries. Don’t forget, CERN is the reason we have an internet.

Chapter 15

1 What the $*%@! is going on?

2 We are Klingons!

3 Happy Birthday.

Chapter 17

1 If a micro black hole were created by the LHC it would disintegrate in about 10^-27 seconds and then decay into the standard model or supersymmetric particles. No need to worry. No need to fear micro spaghettification here.

Chapter 19

1 Twenty-three.

Chapter 27

1 In my defense, Spock dies. Tragically. I dare you to watch it and not cry.

Chapter 42

1 After all, physicists love a paradox.