"Sidelights"

Jennifer Ouellette is a writer and editor who specializes in science. A biographer on Ouellette's home page described her as a "recovering English major who stumbled into science writing quite by accident as a struggling freelance writer in New York City." Her first book, Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales from the Annals of Physics, is aimed at a mainstream audience unfamiliar with complex scientific issues; here, the author seeks to explain physical principles through pop culture references. To do so, she uses examples drawn from a wide range of interests, including the popular novel The Da Vinci Code and the movie Dr. Strangelove. In one chapter, Ouellette relates Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to the film Back to the Future.

Black Bodies and Quantum Cats earned positive reviews from critics and readers alike. For some, the author's use of pop culture references and unusual pairings made for an enjoyable read. The book "makes physics and its history entertaining," wrote one Science News contributor. Others found that Ouellette's approachable writing style made it easy for general readers to understand the detailed scientific theories contained in the book. The author's prose "encourages generalists to give physics a try," observed Gilbert Taylor in Booklist.

Ouellette again combines her interest in science with popular culture in The Physics of the Buffyverse. In the book, Ouellette considers some basic questions of physics and hard science in relation to concepts from the popular fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff, Angel. "Blending fizzy pop culture with serious science, the book illustrates many common theories and laws of physics using examples from the plots of these two defunct cult television...