One is Infinity by Robert A. Granger

About the book

Only when one reaches old age does time permit serious reflection on the past. So it is with Nobel Laureate Professor David Whink, who has received every accolade in science, but none in compassion and human understanding. His work is his life. All else is unimportant. He has reached his intellectual limit, where the next move he makes could be irreversibly catastrophic. Stress has placed him in a hospital where he now has time to reflect on what he has lost: his gentle loving wife, a daughter he never knew, his job, and the exciting promises of his research. The story opens as he realizes the horrible consequences he has unintentionally heaped on the world. He is afforded a chance to recapture lost love and in the process to save his daughter from the consequence of a terrible accident. But it would cost him his life.

In a seemingly unrelated secondary plot, two siblings who hate each other are instrumental in killing the professor. The girl is both beautiful and smart, but possessed with a dark secret she shares with her hideous and cruel brother. After killing their parents, the siblings vow never to contact each other. The brother lives the life of a violent criminal. His sister marries a highly successful lawyer who has suddenly been called in to help defend the professor.

The lives of all the characters intertwine when the professor's daughter accidentally kills the lawyer in a strange development. Hearing that his daughter killed his lawyer, the professor flies out to save her. Confronting the police, he claims he committed the act. The police notify the lawyer's wife of her husband's death and tell her the professor admitted to the killing. In a rage the lawyer's wife contacts her estranged brother to exact revenge, but he asks a terrible price.

Then there is a third and main plot. Unknown to everyone except the professor and his graduate student, there is an alien life form, a plant, that the professor has innocently programmed with a power so vast it can destroy all life on Earth. It is a being that is possessed with unlimited knowledge that focuses on a weird course of action not even the professor can stop. After the professor's death it is up to the graduate student to halt the strange events.

The story is of love gained then lost, but with a new twist. Even the alien plant is a gentle loving being. The story's theme is that all animals are instinctively violent, yet without that violence, all life on Earth will cease to exist. The story ends with the alien sending out a message into the cosmos that its mission was successful.

About the author

Mathematical physicist educator, researcher, publisher, consultant, and columnist. Graduated BA (mathematics) from Pomona College, 1955; MS (physics) from Drexel Inst. of Tech., 1959: Ph.D. (mechanical engineering, math, physics) from University of MD; post graduate work at Research Institute of Advanced Study, and the Johns Hopkins University Senior Research Scientist at the Martin Co., Principal Engineer at the Boeing Co., Senior Math Physicist at the Trident Engineering Co. Professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, Visiting Professor at Cambridge University, Swiss National Polytechnic in Zurich and King Fahd University at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Professor at University of Maryland. Director of Vortex Dynamics Symposium and Unified Method of Aeroelasticity both held at the V.K. Institute, Brussels. C.E.O. and founder of Scientific Archives, Inc. Columnist for the Daily Sun newspaper on "Science Made Simple". Author of sixteen textbooks and scholarly works, including the classic Dover Publications FLUID MECHANICS, plus books published by Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. Contributed over 600 scientific articles in refereed journals, reports, etc. Produced over fifty educational videotapes used in university instruction. Recipient of several honors including U.S. Navy Meritorious Civilian Medal for excellence in teaching, Honorary Fellow of Cambridge University, Ford Foundation Fellow, Honorary Member of Institute of Modern Physics at Athens, Greece, Professor Emeritus U.S. Naval Academy. Avocations include composing classical music, mountain climbing (ice walls), tennis, swimming, lecturing on classical music, yoga, acting on stage, singing on stage, and writing. Married childhood sweetheart, and greatest accomplishment as father of two magnificent children.