THE SCIENCE IN THE PHYSICIST

Shattered, pulverized human remains contain a meteorite shard, which leads the team to a physics lab in DC; the victim was engaged to the lab's founder, and had been working on an extremely controversial project that garnered her many death threats; meanwhile, Angela's father arrives to seek revenge on Hodgins, and Sweets attempts to mediate the situation.

On a fashion shoot in a vacant lot, a model and photographer stumble across a human ear. Booth and Brennan arrive, and also find a garbage bag filled with chunks of human remains. The mass in the bag does not equal that of an entire human, but another bag is soon found. Insect activity places death between 48 and 72 hours ago. Hodgins finds flecks of gold and pearl fragments with the body. At the diner Angela complains to Brennan about her attempt at celibacy. While Brennan wonders why Angela is taking Sweets' advice, Angela sees her father ⎯ Texas bluesman Billy F. Gibbons ⎯ outside. She abruptly races away from the diner, saying she has to save Hodgins' life. She finds Hodgins, and implores him to leave town. Her father is here to make him pay for their break-up.

The victim was dead before being chopped to bits, and their cells have burst from inside, as with frostbite. Hodgins has found that what he thought was pearl was actually a meteorite. Hodgins and Vincent try to recreate the impact of a meteor with a cannon. Brennan informs Hodgins that NASA has no record of a meteor falling to earth when the victim died; his experiment is not relevant. There is, however, a meteor matching the one from the body in DC at the Collar Institute. As Booth and Brennan leave, there is a huge explosion; Hodgins and Vincent have gone ahead with their cannon experiment. The lab goes into lockdown; Booth and Brennan manage to get out just before the doors close.

At the Collar Institute Booth and Brennan meet Dr. Christopher Beaudette, who is researching ways to produce power from earthquakes. Blind scientist Landis Collar, the world's expert on superconductivity, is wearing a sonic-echo locator prototype that allows him to sense his surroundings. Landis denied Brennan a fellowship at the institute years ago. Landis corrects her: he denied her anthropological research. Her research was looking to the past; the Collar Institute looks to the future. Landis recognizes the meteorite fragment as the stone from the engagement ring of his fiancée, Dr. Diane Sidman, Editor-in-Chief of the Collar Journal. Diane's students are questioned. First up is Milton Alvaredo, who is working on teleportation. Dr. Sidman was going to publish his research in the Journal. Could publishing be a motive for murder? Next, Jennifer Keating recalls that Milton and Diane argued before she disappeared. Jennifer specializes in cosmogenic isotope research, a way of dating artifacts. She knew Diane would never print her study: it looked to the past.

DNA confirms the victim as Diane Sidman. A wood chipper did not cause the damage to the bone because the fractures are not evenly spaced; they are completely random. Cam theorizes that the cellular damage and fractures are related. What if the body was frozen and shattered using liquid nitrogen? Vincent and Hodgins plan to drop and shatter a supercooled turkey, demonstrating what happened to the victim. The turkey doesn't shatter: it bounces, striking Angela in the head. Diane was a member of the Large Hadron Collider Team, the group accused of endeavoring to create a black hole and end the universe (though the chances of that happening were slim). Still, Diane had received death threats. Landis has a record of them. It transpires that Christopher Beaudette will replace Diane as Editor-in-Chief of the Collar Journal, and that Christopher and Diane were sleeping together. Landis says that when they married, the sexual relationship would cease. Brennan sees the rationale. Booth sees it as grounds for murder.

At the FBI Sweets questions Christopher Beaudette. Christopher admits to a sexual relationship with Diane, but he was never "in love" with her. Love is beneath him. Besides, he's also sleeping with Jennifer, and Jennifer and Diane were also sleeping with Milton. Dr. Broderick Mullins, who issued many threats against Diane, is interrogated. Mullins says that the chances of a black hole destroying all life are exceedingly slight, but the stakes are high. Earth is the only planet known to sustain life. He's relieved to hear that Diane is dead.

At the diner Hodgins notices Angela's father staring at him from the street. This man is not happy. Sweets offers to talk to Gibbons on Hodgins' behalf, but it's too late. He's vanished. Cam finds that the victim had a life-threatening case of leukemia, but a physical two weeks ago shows that she was perfectly healthy. How did she develop cancer in a matter of days? Brennan discovers an indentation that could be the result of a tumor; Diane must have been exposed to steady radiation everyday to develop a tumor this large. A Nuclear Emergency Search Team combs Diane's lab. They don't discover any radiation, but Brennan notices a stain on the back of her chair at exactly the same height that the tumor formed on her body. Later, two cylindrical notches on Diane's left clavicle are found. They could be stab wounds. Hodgins discovers harmless "daughter isotopes" on the chair's fabric. Daughter isotopes are left behind after a radioactive isotope decays. At one point a dangerous radioactive isotope was on this chair.

At the Collar Institute, Booth is sure Landis will make a move on Brennan. It's the logical thing to do, but Booth doesn't believe Landis should be moving on so fast: "Good people, they leave marks on each other. The least we can do is let them fade away naturally." Booth asks Jennifer to show them the radioactive isotopes, and they find that several vials are missing. Unfortunately, everyone in the Institute had access to the radioactive isotopes. Angela finds that Diane's skeleton broke apart at the weakest point in each bone. Brennan realizes that the victim was not dropped, but vibrated until the bones shattered. Booth believes Milton is the killer; he transports pond scum using vibration. Brennan counters that Christopher Beaudette's research involves earthquakes, and Landis is working on an echo-locator. At the Institute, Booth and Brennan investigate Christopher's lab for something that could shatter a corpse. They discover a resonance chamber. Booth and Brennan step inside... and the door unexpectedly slams shut. A painful sound fills the space. Brennan tries to counteract the wavelength using her voice, but it's no use. She passes out. Booth pulls out his gun, and shoots the door. Then he too passes out. Landis hears the shots, and pulls them out of the chamber. Hodgins finds pencil lead in the bone notches. The victim was stabbed with a mechanical pencil.

At the diner Angela finally speaks with her father, and tells him that the break-up was mutual. Hodgins could have stopped it, but she could have too. Gibbons agrees to "ameliorate" his "vengeful intentions." At the FBI Booth, Brennan, and Sweets face Landis, Milton, and Christopher. One of them is the killer. This murder was carefully planned. The killer caused Diane Sidman's leukemia, but before it could kill her he became impatient, and stabbed her with a pencil. This indicates that the murderer had a deadline. Brennan surmises that it was the publishing deadline. Booth shows the group a picture of the resonance chamber. Luminol indicates there was blood in the chamber. Brennan notes that luminol reacts with pond scum. Milton is the murderer. Booth cuffs him. Landis tries to punch Milton, but his echo-locator is off, and he accidentally punches Booth instead. When informed of his mistake, he apologizes, and then lands a punch on Milton. He then asks Brennan for her phone number. Brennan turns him down on the spot. Booth tells Brennan she is the only smart person he likes, leaving Sweets to wonder how Booth feels about him.

At the Founding Fathers Bar, Booth and Brennan discuss Milton's motive. Diane had agreed to publish Milton's research, but only if he shared credit with her. She claimed he was using her theories to transmit his pond scum. Angela, Vincent, and Sweets join the partners at the bar. Angela wonders where Hodgins is. Has anybody seen him? They all shake their heads. Hodgins awakes in the desert with a bandaged arm. He pulls off the gauze to reveal a tattoo of Angela's

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