What does the fictional world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer have to do with science? Plenty. Join science writer Jennifer Ouellette for an entertaining tour of the science behind “Buffyverse,” where magic, vampires and demons are real. Take a closer look of this surreal world and you’ll find that science lurks everywhere, from the “Big Picture” framework to the nooks and crannies. There are alternate universes and parallel worlds, Newtonian mechanics, electromagnetism, string theory, and even a “thermodynamics of magic.”

Ouellette is a recovering English major who stumbled into science writing as a freelancer in New York City. Now based in L.A., she is the author of two popular science books: The Physics of Buffyverse (2007) and Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales from the Annals of Physics (2006), written numerous articles for science magazines, and is a contributing editor of APS News, a publication of the American Physical Society.