Ben Barnes had been looking forward to graduate work in chemistry at the Atlanta Institute of Technology, but things aren"t what he expected. First he almost gets run over by an armored silver Mercedes driven by a nervous madman. Then he supposedly "fails" all five graduate placement exams, and he knows he couldn"t have. He"s nearly blown up-twice. And he discovers and loses (or does he?) a formula that could solve the world"s energy problems, only to find what"s most important of all: a long-lost secret buried deep in his own heart. Set in Atlanta around 2008, Tom Rybolt"s science-based novel Forbidden Light follows the activities of Ben Barnes, a new graduate student who accidentally discovers a scientific conversion method that would solve major energy and environmental problems, but would also disrupt and threaten current industries.