3 Body Problem: 7 things about this science fiction series that will excite kids

American science fiction series, 3 Body Problem is ruling the OTT platform, Netflix currently. The show is based on the novel The Three-Body Problem, the first novel in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Liu Cixin. Netflix defines the eight-episode series in right words: "defies human science and takes us on a mind-boggling journey that spans continents and timelines."

Oxford Five is the backbone of the show. This represents a group of scientists who are working tirelessly against time to save the world from disastrous consequences. The Oxford Five are Will, Jin Cheng (Jess Hong), Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo), Auggie Salazar (Eiza González), and Jack Rooney (John Bradley).

The series is about San-Ti, an extraterrestrial species whose planet is doomed due to a three body problem. They want to flee to Earth and to help them with this they are using the best scientists and physicists from the Earth through VR games "with the goal of winning them over to their cause." The game is very realistic as the technology of San-Ti is much more advanced than ours.

Three body problem is the cosmic complication that arises when three celestial bodies- which can be planets, suns or stars- are near each other and exert force upon one another. This is a problem because when three bodies exert force on one another the system becomes unstable and breaks down. This explains why San-Ti had a stable era and a chaotic era.


San-Ti had a three body problem or a three-sun solar system due to which it experienced stable era and chaotic era. Netflix explains: When the planet revolves around one sun, it’s a stable era. When another sun snatches the planet away, it wanders in the gravitational field between the three suns, causing a chaotic era. In a chaotic era, the living conditions can become too extreme for life to exist. Hence the San-Ti’s mass exodus from their planet.

Auggie, a nanotechnologist, is disturbed by unusual visions which is only visible to her. In the initial episodes, we Auggie is "haunted by a cryptic flashing countdown that nobody else can see." “There’s this really cool phenomenon called Cherenkov radiation, where in certain materials, particles can travel faster than light does in that material. They then emit this radiation in a very specific cone, a bit like a sonic boom when a jet engine goes overhead — it’s the equivalent, but with light instead of sound. My theory for how these images appear on people’s retinas or in people’s vision in the show is that you could produce Cherenkov light in the liquid in someone’s eye to make an image kind of appear — or a countdown," explains Dr. Matt Kenzie, associate professor of physics at University of Cambridge. Dr. Kenzie is the science advisor of the show as well.

The VR headset of 3 Body Problem is all about trying to save a young girl, Follower, and other people. The game is set in different time periods from the Shang Dynasty to Tudor-period England. The unique feature of this VR game is revealed when Jack tastes the soil and is amazed by the realistic experience.

Another interesting feature in the show, which happened in the first episode and which infact glued science fiction lovers to the show, was when the stars flickered. Soon after Auggie reached the place told by the "mysterious" woman, she and Will along with several other people noticed the stars twinkling on and off. Dr. Kenzie explains that twinkling of the stars is a normal phenomenon, but "but turning off and on completely is a fictional phenomenon that can’t really be explained."

As you sit through the show, you realise San-Ti has Sophons that it uses to spy on human beings, to learn about their technological advancements and to know what are the planning to do. Dr. Kenzie explains that in our three-dimensional space world and our one dimension of time it is not possible to have sophons. Sophons can spy on human conversations but they are not able to understand lies and deception and world leaders have made use of this trait and appointed Wallfacers, named after the ancient Buddhist name for meditators. Wallfacers are the individuals who are selected to devise a plan to fight the San-Ti all within their own minds.

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