Ding Yi asks how they can find out about the Grand Unified Theory otherwise, but the dehazardification officer claims that it's impossible without initiating vacuum decay and destroying themselves.
Although it knows the Grand Unified Theory, whose essential data was transmitted by an ancient alien civilization one tenthousandth of a second before their annihilation in his former home universe, a prime directive forbids sharing it with humanity.
Paul Di Filippo wrote in the Locus Magazine in a review of the whole collection A View from the Stars, that "our last piece of fiction is the longest, and most vibrant and complex", calling it "a Clarkean accelerando," whose "consequent changes to Earth and humanity cascade violently.
"[3] Sam Tyler wrote for SF Book Reviews, that it is "an interesting short story, since it balances the humanity with the science", since "the physicists is only driven by knowledge, but we feel sympathy for the man's wife and child as they watch him not only sacrifice himself, but also the relationship he has with his family.
"[4] Publishers Weekly wrote in a review of the entire collection A View from the Stars, that its fiction entries "may be more down-to-earth, but they’re unafraid to ask big questions, including 'What is the purpose of the universe?'.