As long as Sheldon (and his work) still brings in funding, that's what the Bean Counters would be looking for. If the DONORS ever lose interest, that would likely be the end of Sheldon's employment at Caltech. But it's not something the BCs would just decide on their own.

I thought it was odd that a (very) obscure Russian paper from 30 years ago, would convince Sheldon (and the others) that his/Amy's work is useless. Just because it says "super-asymmetrical" doesn't mean they used the same approach, or that Sheldon/Amy didn't find a solution to whatever had stymied poor Ivan back in the "dark ages." (1978 was before Reagan/Glasnost/Perestroika/fall of the Berlin Wall/etc.)

But, maybe that's something that will come up again before the series finale.

Heck, maybe the author of that paper is the guy who's the janitor at the university now!

Also, with Sheldon's Vulcan hearing, why didn't he just open the door because of Leonard's sighing, talking to Penny, etc?

@Knixon said:

As long as Sheldon (and his work) still brings in funding, that's what the Bean Counters would be looking for. If the DONORS ever lose interest, that would likely be the end of Sheldon's employment at Caltech. But it's not something the BCs would just decide on their own.

I thought it was odd that a (very) obscure Russian paper from 30 years ago, would convince Sheldon (and the others) that his/Amy's work is useless. Just because it says "super-asymmetrical" doesn't mean they used the same approach, or that Sheldon/Amy didn't find a solution to whatever had stymied poor Ivan back in the "dark ages." (1978 was before Reagan/Glasnost/Perestroika/fall of the Berlin Wall/etc.)

But, maybe that's something that will come up again before the series finale.

> Heck, maybe the author of that paper is the guy who's the janitor at the university now!

Also, with Sheldon's Vulcan hearing, why didn't he just open the door because of Leonard's sighing, talking to Penny, etc?

Go Polar Bears !

This is just like the military project story line. A story idea comes up and then is dropped. It just made Sheldon and Amy look even more Sheldon and Amy-ish. Raj and Leonard in the basement was neat but Raj just picking up and obscure Russian paper?

Well Raj said it was referenced in one of the notations they were supposed to check. So in that way it makes sense. But I suspect that much of what they were checking, also referenced other things. That seems to be pretty common for scientific research. So why wouldn't they have followed all of those trails too? Was it just Because Plot? Maybe.

Or maybe they were following other trails too, at least for a while, but it wasn't mentioned, while in the case of that one it was in Russian and they needed help to understand it.

Meanwhile, there are several ways they could go. Including that the janitor did write that paper, or at least was involved somehow, and he knows that the paper isn't really valid for some reason. Maybe they knew that super-asymmetry DID work, but they didn't want Brezhnev to benefit from it? Or something.

In the wedding episode (last season finale) they did "google" for previous research, which probably should have turned up anything EXCEPT an obscure Russian paper. And maybe that's why they made it obscure and Russian: since otherwise they would/should have found it much earlier.

I wonder if Raj might have had a brief flashback to the time he spent in the steam tunnel with Sheldon when he was in that library basement ?

I wonder if Sheldon ever watched Hannah Montana.

I don't get the Hannah Montana reference. Wasn't Hannah Montana mentioned in the show once ?

As for the paper I would have been great if they mentioned that it came from Leningrad Polytechnika, which is where Dimitri the janitor studied.

Yes, when Sheldon and Raj were in the steam tunnel, Raj got Sheldon interested in the Hannah Montana show - because of her secret identity stuff, I think - and Sheldon asked Amy (over their 2-way radios) to get him a dvd set of the show and a portable dvd player to watch them on.

Yes now I remember. Thanks.

I was thinking, it's a good thing Leonard and Raj did the checking. If Sheldon and Amy had gone with a grad student, I think there's a pretty good chance the Russian paper would not have been found. Sheldon would have been so much MORE unhappy if they had published, and THEN been proven wrong.