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eBook Category: Science Fiction Nebula Award(R) Nominee
eBook Description: Hard science fiction as only Benford does it. An African-American physicist undertakes a dangerous journey to a politically unstable India to investigate reports that proton decay has been detected in an underfunded laboratory. But the discovery is more than a scientific curiosity, it may herald the end of the entire universe.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Cheap Street: New Castle, 1989
Fictionwise Release Date: December 2000

112 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [201 KB], eReader (PDB) [64 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [53 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [50 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [61 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [123 KB], hiebook (KML) [147 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [81 KB], iSilo (PDB) [44 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [56 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [83 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [77 KB]
Words: 14601
Reading time: 41-58 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Patil said precisely, "We would not have suggested that your National Science Foundation send an observer to confirm our findings unless we believed them to be of the highest importance." "You've seen proton decay?" Patil beamed. "Without doubt." "Damn." "Exactly." "What mode?" "The straightforward pion and positron decay products." Clay smiled, reserving judgment. Something about Patil's almost prissy precision made him wonder if this small, beleaguered team of Indian physicists might actually have brought it off. An immense long shot, of course, but possible. There were much bigger groups of particle physicists in Europe and the USA who had tried to detect proton decay using underground swimming pools of pure water. Those experiments had enjoyed all the benefits of the latest electronics. Clay had worked on the big American project in a Utah salt mine, before lean budgets and lack of results closed it down. It would be galling if this lone, underfunded Indian scheme had finally done it. Nobody at the NSF believed the story coming out of India. Patil smiled at Clay's silence, a brilliant slash of white in the murk. Their headlights picked out small panes of glass stuck seemingly at random in nearby hovels, reflecting quick glints of yellow back into the van. The night seemed misty; their headlights forked ahead. Clay thought a soft rain had started outside, but then he saw that thousands of tiny insects darted into their headlights. Occasionally big ones smacked against the windshield.