Final Theory (Abridged)

Columbia University professor David Swift is called to the hospital to comfort his mentor, a physicist whos been brutally attacked.

With his last words, the dying man gives his former pupil a seemingly random string of numbers that could hold the key to Einsteins last and greatest secret. Einheitliche Feldtheorie. The Theory of Everything. Einsteins proposed Unified Theory—a set of equations that could explain all the forces of nature—would have revolutionized our understanding of the universe. But Einstein never discovered it. Or did he? Within hours, David is arrested by the FBI and taken to a secret interrogation center. But the FBI isnt the only faction pursuing Einsteins long-hidden theory. A Russian mercenary wants to force David to talk—and he will do whatever it takes. On the run for his life, David teams up with an old girlfriend, a brilliant Princeton scientist, and frantically tries to piece together Einsteins final theory to reveal its staggering consequences.

We used E=mc2 to build the atom bomb…What could we do with the key to creation?

Seamlessly weaving real science, history, and politics with an intriguing love story, Final Theory expertly combines fact and fiction with nonstop heart-pounding action in a plot that will have you riveted until its explosive end.

IN A BLAZING FICTION DEBUT, MARK ALPERT TAKES PHYSICS OUT OF THE CLASSROOM AND INTO THE HIGH-STAKES REALM OF ACTION, DANGER, AND A PLOT THAT COULD DOOM THE WORLD. . . .

An elderly physicist, one of Einsteins last living colleagues, is brutally tortured, then left to die, when he refuses to reveal what he knows about a long-hidden secretthe solution to Einsteins proposed Unified Field Theory.

As his life ebbs, he whispers a mysterious string of numbers to Columbia professor David Swift. Torn between excitement and disbelief that such a momentous discovery could have remained a secret for all these years, David has no time for thought. Already, both a lethal Russian assassin and the FBI are hot on his trail. His one hope is to team up with his former girlfriend Monique Reynolds, a brilliant Princeton scientist, in a desperate race to uncover the shocking truth before they are both silenced . . . forever.

A self-described lifelong "science geek," Mark Alpert majored in astrophysics at Princeton University, writing his undergraduate thesis on an application of Einstein's theory of relativity. After earning an MFA in poetry at Columbia and working as a reporter, he became an editor at Scientific American, where he simplifies bewildering scientific ideas for the magazine's readers. Mark lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.