Nora is an intensely intuitive Physics professor, able to predict such interpersonal events as pregnancy and relationship dissolution with the same accuracy as she can her physics experiments.  The pairing of one of the more rigorous "physical sciences" with something as nebulous as intuition-bordering-on-precognition, is an interesting device.  Nora reads the signs and indications like research data: the glow of her friend, Sara’s, skin, the brightness of her eyes, her recent marriage to a man seven years her junior, and knows she is pregnant, even though Sara has yet to discover the fact.  She can predict when a woman at a dinner party will create a scene, to the moment, and knows that she will catch three of her students cheating on her next test.  Yet she cannot figure out how to keep her boyfriend, Jeff, from leaving her.  She knows he will break her heart, even though their relationship is currently healthy and satisfactory.