Distress by Greg Egan
On a utopian, man-made Oceania atoll, Violet Mosala, Nobel Prize winner and quantum physicist prepares to see off her rivals in the quest for the ultimate Theory of Everything. Burned out by recording the abuses of biotech for his TV news syndicate, Andrew Worth grabs the chance to follow Violet's story. One by one her competitors are disappearing from the scientific summit. Who or what is to blame? Is one of the many cults-pro-and anti-science-narrowing the chances of her defeat by mortal means, or is there some other more esoteric force at work undermining the Theory of Everything Conference?