The Science of Things - Allusions

Allusions

• In an interview, Gavin Rossdale revealed that the song "Letting the Cables Sleep" was written for a friend who had contracted HIV. This song appeared in a season six episode of ER entitled "Such Sweet Sorrow", which featured the final appearances of George Clooney and Julianna Margulies.
• The second season of Charmed contained two songs from this album. In the episode "Awakened", the single "The Chemicals Between Us" plays in the background at P3. Later in the season, "Letting the Cables Sleep" is heard at the end of the episode "Astral Monkey" while a distraught Piper cries over the loss of her doctor.
• Apocalyptica has remixed the song "Letting the Cables Sleep".
• "Spacetravel" features backing vocals by Rossdale's wife, Gwen Stefani.
• The song "Dead Meat" is referenced in the No Doubt song Ex-Girlfriend.
• In the 1938 novella Anthem by Ayn Rand, the protagonist and narrator states that his favorite subject in school is "The Science of Things," the title of this album.