The tragic nine-year odyssey of Petr Taborsky is best captured in the tale of two government-issued numbers glaringly at odds. First, there is federal patent 5,082,813, awarded to Taborsky, a bright young undergraduate at the University of South Florida, for inventing a way to make a reusable cleaner for sewage-treatment facilities. Then there is prisoner number 514527, issued by the North Florida penitentiary to Taborsky, a convicted felon who, for several months, was held in shackles on a chain gang.

Taborsky is surely not the first researcher to serve time; he may, however, be the first to be incarcerated for stealing his own research. His story caricatures the U.S. system of sponsored university research and intellectual property rights, featuring an overzealous university and a remarkably bullheaded young inventor.