"Flowers for Sheldon..."

"Flowers for Sheldon..." Parts XVI, XVII...

Flowers for Sheldon..."

Summary: Leonard and the gang discover Sheldon has taken advantage of Penny's request for help with her binge drinking to make needed improvements...

Disclaimer: BBT is all Chuck Lorre's...

Part XVI...

"What?..." Penny at whiteboard in Leonard's and Sheldon's apartment eyed the staring Sheldon and Raj...

V-Penny, in holographic form above her Roomba base, staring as well, offering the others' unspoken comment in verbal form... "What the fuck is that?..."

"Guys...And you mind your language, girl...It's a basic derivation of the equation for the synaptic plasticity model taken to the next molecular sublevel...Sheldon?...You must see I'm right here?..."

V-Penny rolling eyes...Mind my holographic butt...Grumble to Raj...

"Hey!...Just record this for further analysis and to play back for Leonard..." Penny, sharply...

"Now...Sheldon?..."

"I see what you're aiming at..." Sheldon, cautiously... "And the formulae seem correct for the model you're dealing with...But..."

"I'm totally lost..." Raj sighed... "I do get the exponential quality of the synaptic modification but I can't see how you do it on the quantum level..."

"Let me walk you through it..." Penny sighed...

Do I really swear so much?...she hissed to Raj...

Well...

Cal Tech...

"All right...MRI scan of the stage five rats' brains indicate no structural anomalies or aberations..." Leonard sums up...Amy and Bernadette, seated in his lab nodding... "While the PETT scans taken during the study show high metabolic activity in these regions of the brains..." he taps at various points on an image on a projector screen... "Amy?...You're up..."

She rises and takes his position by the screen... Pointing...

"We know the serotonin levels are elevated for periods which ties into the food intake since serotonin is produced largely in the intestines...Glutamate is also elevated in the modifiable synapses and GABA is reduced...Which makes logical sense, given the boost in intellectual achievement, if we tie it to the standard theory on the role of modifiable synaptic plasticity...Now, long-term potentiation between neurons we believe is modulated by genes like activin ß-A, which specificially was confirmed as up-regulated in our deceased rodent siblings, leading to clear physical changes in the dentritic spines's cytoskeletal structure...That, along with an increase in receptors at the modifiable synapses, appears to be the really striking change...The dentritic spines have lengthened, which increases the chance of making synaptic contact...And the receptor increase is confirmed by the increased expression of PSD-95 protein...In short, the rats and presumably Howard's new scanner will confirm, Penny, have been rewired for a much faster neural net...And these changes are likely to be long-term..." she eyed the others...

"So...To sum up..." Leonard noted... "You're saying even if we keep Penny from overeating, the changes to this point are likely to remain in place..."

"Unless another event causes a physical downgrade, yes..." Amy nods... "Meaning Sheldon may have achieved his goal..." she beams...

"With what drawbacks?..." Leonard frowns... "We've seen evidence of serotonin overloading...Glutamate toxicity is a possibility...And the increase in synaptic connections theoretically could leave her more vulnerable to prion degradation...Amyloidosis...Etc, etc..."