mathematical prowess

Ph.D. TV

Some of television's most successful prime-time dramas are built around a core of science, medicine or technology. Their creators say it's essential to get the science rigt-or at least to make it look good. Here's how the math-sleuth hit Numb3rs does it

Andy Black doesn´t set an alarm. His mind, bubbling with mathematics, wakes him before the sun rises over Pasadena. Ignoring six days´ worth of red stubble, he drives to work in a 2003 Acura that looks, inside and out, brand-new. It´s a short drive to the spacious academic office where he works. There´s no one else in the building yet, which suits Black just fine; later, when the place fills up, people will be incessantly bugging him with math questions. He gets right to work, striding to a blackboard and briskly chalking a maze of arbitrage equations.

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Pop CSI: How Science Conquered TV

On today's hottest shows, the stars wear lab coats instead of bathing suits. We look behind the scenes at Numb3rs to see how it gets the science right-and why it sometimes needs to get it wrong

For more photos from the set of Numb3rs, click 'View Photos' at left

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