Astrophysicist says he has cracked the code for time travel

Astrophysicist says he has cracked the code for time travel

Sanjana Gajbhiye

Can you imagine going back in time to visit a lost loved one? This heartwrenching desire is what propelled astrophysicist Professor Ron Mallett on a lifelong quest to build a time machine. After years of research, Professor Mallett claims to have finally developed the revolutionary equation for time travel.

The idea of bending time to our will – revisiting the past, altering history, or glimpsing into the future – has been a staple of science fiction for over a century. But could it move from fantasy to reality?

The inspiration: A father’s love and a classic novel

Professor Mallett’s obsession with time travel and its equation has its roots in a shattering childhood experience. When he was just ten years old, his father, a television repairman who fostered his son’s love of science, tragically passed away from a heart attack.

Devastated, the young Mallett sought solace in books. It was H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine that sparked a lifelong fascination.

Wells’ opening lines became his mantra: “Scientific people know very well that Time is only a kind of Space. And why cannot we move in Time as we move about in the other dimensions of Space?”

This profound question ignited Mallett’s scientific journey. He dedicated himself to understanding the nature of time, determined to find a way to revisit the past and see his beloved father once more.

Time travel equation in the hospital

Decades of research into black holes and Einstein’s theories of relativity led to the time travel equation.

While hospitalized for a heart condition, Mallett had a revelation. “It turns out that black holes can create a gravitational field that could lead to the creation of time loops that could allow us to go back in time,” he explained.

Imagine the fabric of spacetime as a river. While time usually flows in one direction, Mallett theorizes that the immense gravity of a spinning black hole can create whirlpools, where time twists back on itself.

The time machine blueprint

Mallett’s vision for a time machine centers on what he calls “an intense and continuous rotating beam of light” to manipulate gravity. His device would use a ring of lasers to mimic the spacetime-distorting effects of a black hole.

“Let’s say you have a cup of coffee in front of you. Start stirring the coffee with the spoon. It started to spin, right? That’s what a spinning black hole does,” explained Mallett.

“In Einstein’s theory, space and time are related to each other. That’s why it’s called space-time. So when the black hole spins, it will actually cause time to shift.”

“Eventually, a rotating beam of laser lights can be used as a kind of time machine and cause a time warp that will allow us to go back to the past,” said Mallett. Perhaps, what began as a son’s wish to see his father one last time might one day transform our understanding of time itself.

Challenges and limitations

The obstacles on the path from time travel equation to machine are immense. Mallett acknowledges the “galactic amounts of energy” needed to power such a device – energy levels far beyond our current capabilities.

The sheer size of a theoretical time machine is also unknown. While Mallett optimistically states, “I figured out how to do it. In theory, it is possible,” the reality is that he may not live to see the machine built.

Furthermore, Mallett’s theory comes with a significant constraint. “You can send information back, but you can only send it back to the point where you started operating the device.”

In this sense, the time machine is like a one-way message service to the past. You can’t travel to a point before the machine existed.

Mallet’s lifetime of dedication to time travel

Despite the daunting challenges, Mallett’s remarkable journey is a testament to the human spirit. Alongside his time travel research, he’s led a distinguished academic career, teaching physics at the University of Connecticut .

Now in his seventies, his work has been propelled by an unwavering belief in the possibility of the seemingly impossible.

Equation vs. reality of time travel

Whether Mallett’s time machine will ever transcend the realm of theory is uncertain. Skeptics point to the vast technological hurdles and potential paradoxes raised by tampering with time.

Yet, the mere possibility that science might one day unlock the secrets of temporal travel is enough to ignite the imagination. Could we rewrite our regrets, learn from past mistakes, or witness historical events firsthand?

Perhaps Professor Mallett’s greatest legacy won’t be a time travel equation itself, but the inspiration he provides – a reminder that audacious dreams and unrelenting curiosity have the power to push the boundaries of what we believe is possible.

Read more about Professor Mallett’s work here .

More about space-time

As discussed above, space-time, a concept that feels as vast and complex as the universe itself, forms the backbone of our cosmic understanding.

At its core, it blends the dimensions of space and time into a single four-dimensional continuum, challenging our perceptions of reality. This intertwined nature of space and time underpins everything from the motion of planets to the flow of time itself.

Einstein’s groundbreaking contribution

Albert Einstein, with his theory of relativity, revolutionized our understanding of space-time. He posited that space and time are not separate entities but are connected in a dynamic relationship affected by mass and energy.

This relationship implies that the presence of a massive object, like a planet or a star, can warp the fabric of space-time around it. It’s a concept that turns the notion of a flat, unchanging universe on its head, suggesting that the very structure of the cosmos is malleable.

The warp and weft of the cosmos

Imagine space-time as a vast sheet of fabric. When a heavy object sits on this fabric, it creates a dip or curve. This curvature is what we perceive as gravity.

Planets orbit stars not because they are being “pulled” in a straight line towards them, but because they are following the curved space-time geometry that these massive objects create.

This curvature of space-time is not just a theoretical concept; it’s observable and measurable, especially in the presence of extremely massive and dense objects, like black holes.

Gravitational waves: Echoes of cosmic events

One of the most compelling pieces of evidence for the theory of relativity and the dynamic nature of space-time comes from the detection of gravitational waves.

These waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time, generated by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe, such as colliding black holes.

Their discovery not only confirmed Einstein’s predictions but also opened a new window into observing cosmic events that were previously invisible to us.

Practical impact of space-time

While these concepts might seem distant from daily life, they have real-world applications, particularly in technology. The Global Positioning System (GPS), a technology integral to modern navigation, relies on an understanding of space-time.

Satellites orbiting Earth need to account for the effects of gravitational time dilation — a consequence of the curvature of space-time — to provide accurate location data to users on the ground.

In summary, space-time is a framework that shapes our understanding of the universe. From guiding the planets in their orbits to enabling precise navigation on Earth, its effects are both profoundly cosmic and surprisingly practical.

As we continue to explore and understand the intricacies of space-time, we edge closer to unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos, one gravitational wave at a time.

How black holes are linked to time travel

Playing a major role in Dr. Mallett’s time machine, black holes exert a gravitational pull so immense that not even light can escape their grasp. This intense gravity fundamentally alters the fabric of space-time around the black hole.

The stronger the gravity, the more pronounced these effects become, leading to what scientists call gravitational time dilation — a phenomenon where time itself warps, slowing down relative to an observer far from the gravitational pull.

Time dilation explained

At the heart of this phenomenon lies Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, which posits that gravity is the result of masses warping the space-time around them.

In the vicinity of a black hole, this warping becomes so extreme that it significantly affects the flow of time.

An observer standing at a safe distance would perceive time to pass much slower for someone closer to the black hole.

This effect intensifies as one approaches the event horizon, the point of no return beyond which the gravitational pull becomes inescapable.

Boundary between time zones

The event horizon of a black hole marks a stark boundary in the universe, where time as we understand it undergoes a dramatic transformation.

To an external observer, objects approaching the event horizon appear to slow down and almost freeze in time, never quite crossing the threshold.

This illusion results from the light from those objects taking longer and longer to reach the observer as the objects move closer to the event horizon, due to the extreme gravitational pull affecting the light’s path.

Theoretical implications and observations

This warping of time around black holes is not just a theoretical curiosity. As Dr. Mallett explained previously in this article, it has practical implications for our understanding of the universe. For instance, it plays a crucial role in the behavior of binary systems where one star orbits a black hole.

Moreover, advancements in technology, such as precise atomic clocks and observations from space telescopes, have allowed scientists to measure these effects, further confirming the predictions of General Relativity.

In summary, black holes serve as natural laboratories for testing the limits of our understanding of physics, offering insights into the complex interplay between gravity and the fabric of space-time.

The phenomenon of time dilation near these cosmic behemoths challenges our notions of time and space, inviting us to explore beyond the boundaries of our current knowledge.

As we continue to observe and study these fascinating objects, we inch closer to unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

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Watch CBS News

Time travel is something Dr. Ronald Mallett has been looking forward to all of his life

By Jacob Wycoff

February 24, 2023 / 6:15 PM EST / CBS Boston

STORRS, Conn. - Dr. Ronald Mallett is a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Connecticut and one of the first African Americans to be hired for the science department.

His journey to the field of physics started at a very young age following the passing of his father.

"Everything for me began with my father, for me, literally, the sun rose and set on him," Mallett told WBZ-TV "He died suddenly of a massive heart attack." 

Mallett was just 10 years old when his father died. "It devastated me. It took everything out of me. I went from being a really happy kid to becoming a very depressed kid."

But soon, Mallett found hope.

"I came across the book that essentially changed my life," said Mallett. "It was a Classics Illustrated version of H.G. Wells's famous book 'The Time Machine.'"

timetravel.jpg

Inside the book, Mallett said, it spoke of time being a type of space that could be manipulated.

"When I read that, it was like a life preserver had been thrown out to me because I thought, 'Oh, if I could build a time machine, then I could go back to the past and see him again and maybe save his life. So that became an obsession with me."

That obsession was further sparked by a book on Albert Einstein's formulas.

As a young adult, Mallett went into the Air Force, then to college on the GI Bill, and eventually, he landed at UConn.

His mission to see his father again took a turn decades later, theorizing light and gravity could be the key to unlocking the mystery of time.

"I solved Einstein's gravitational field equations for a device that's called a ring laser, which allows you to create a loop of light. And what I found was in fact two effects occur. One is that I found it causes a twisting of space," he said. "This twisting of space, if it's strong enough, can lead to the possibility of loops in time forming."

But, before any of that happens, Dr. Mallett says his project needs funding and engineers need to give a physical form to his theories.

"For that twisting of space to become great enough to cause a twisting of time, the energies that are associated with that are beyond anything technically that we can achieve."

At least, not achievable at the moment.

Still, Professor Mallett remains confident his theories are correct and it's only a matter of, well, time, before the dreams of his youth, become a reality.

For now, his trips to the past are within his family photo albums.

"He is, like, always there in the background for me. Always," said Mallett emotionally.

And if one day he could go back, Mallett has one wish.

"I knew he loved me. But I wasn't sure whether I had ever said explicitly to him that 'I love you.' That would be the other thing that I would do, is to tell him that."

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Jacob Wycoff is a meteorologist at WBZ-TV and will contribute to weekend morning newscasts. Jacob is a member of the National Weather Association and the American Meteorological Society.

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News & Views

News headlines, physicist reveals his secret time machine project.

Geoffrey Gardner

dr mallett time travel

Dr. Ronald Mallett has been working on a time machine since he was 10. John Nikolai, Boston Phoenix hide caption

Dr. Ronald L. Mallett, a tenured theoretical physicist at the University of Connecticut, has been holding on to a big secret for most of his life. Only the 79th African American to receive a doctorate degree in physics, Dr. Mallett spends his days lecturing and writing about subjects well within the normal scope of science. Yet, when he gets home every night, he turns his considerable intellect towards building his lifelong pet project: a functioning time machine.

Mallet's father passed away suddenly when he was a child, and for some reason he latched on to the idea of inventing a time machine so he could go back and warn his father about the dangers of smoking (a factor in his death).

The "overwhelming shock" of his father's death caused Mallett, now 63, to "just disconnect from reality," he says. So when, at age 10, he started building a jury-rigged jalopy, based on the gyroscopic contraption on the cover of the Classics Illustrated version of H.G. Wells's The Time Machine , it might have seemed as if he had gone over the edge.
But the next decades only saw Mallett's focus on his mission intensify with laser-like precision. He devoured every book on Einstein he could find. He boned up on differential equations and tensor calculus. And by 1973, at Penn State, he'd earned his Ph.D. Moved by the intensely personal nature of his quest, Spike Lee announced this past summer that he's currently writing a screenplay for a movie -- which he'll direct -- based on Mallett's book, Time Traveler .

So, did Mallett actually build his time machine? Not exactly, but the unique theories that he has developed over the years have brought the concept of time travel closer to reality -- and we think his father would be plenty proud of that.

More on Dr. Mallett's fascinating story can be read at The Boston Phoenix .

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Time traveler : a scientist's personal mission to make time travel a reality

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A Scientist Says Time Travel Is Possible With Ring Lasers

So, just find some of those.

the rotating blue light trail surrounds the crystal ball

  • Ronald Mallett is still working on rotating lasers to travel back in time.
  • His working theory is based on Albert Einstein’s relativity discussion.
  • The prototype laser loop he developed ends up bending time, hypothetically allowing movement back—at the farthest—to the moment the machine was turned on.

Ronald Mallett loves the concept of time travel. He has since he was a kid. At 77, the former University of Connecticut physics professor still isn’t backing down from his theory: A spinning laser loop can bend time in an ongoing way.

With his story chronicled anew by The Guardian , Mallett says his concept of creating an artificial black hole —which could muster a gravitational field that might lead to loops of time being created, allowing you to go to the past—comes in the form of his ring laser. The prototype, which has been running since 2019, can create a continuous rotating beam of light. Mallett says the “light can create gravity, and if gravity can affect time, then light itself can affect time.”

“Let’s say you have a cup of coffee in front of you right now,” he explains to The Guardian . “Start stirring the coffee with the spoon. It started swirling around, right? That’s what a rotating black hole does. In Einstein’s theory, space and time relate to each other. That’s why it’s called space-time. So as the black hole is rotating, it’s actually going to cause a twisting of time.”

And you’ve got to start that twisting concept somewhere. “The Wright Brothers didn't just build a plane,” he said a couple of years ago. “First, they actually built a wind tunnel to determine the best configurations for aircraft wings. When it comes to a time machine, we need to build the wind tunnel before we can think about building the plane.”

So Mallett made his prototype machine. He thinks it could work. But it hasn’t yet, and if it does, it doesn’t have the infinite ability to go as far back as he’d like. Instead, he says the dip back in time can only go for as far back as when the loop was created. Think: 2019 .

He’s still hopeful, though. “Let’s suppose that we had already had this device going on some years ago, and now we have medicines that can cure Covid,” he says. “Imagine if we could predict precisely when earthquakes are going to occur, or tsunamis. So, for me, I’ve opened the door to that possibility.”

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Science on Screen

How To Build A Time Machine

Gold Coast Arts Center Great Neck, NY

Ronald Mallett

Research Professor of Physics, University of Connecticut

Film director and animator

Director, HOW TO BUILD A TIME MACHINE

How to Build a Time Machine— Making time travel a reality

Program description.

The subjects and director of the film discuss time travel theory. Part of the 2018 National Evening of Science on Screen .

Presented At

Film synopsis.

Two men pursue lifelong fantasies in very different ways, both inspired by H.G. Wells' classic novel  The Time Machine. 

How to Build a Time Machine follows two men as they set out on a journey to build their own time machines. Rob Niosi is a stop-motion animator who has spent the last 13 years obsessively constructing a full-scale replica of the time machine prop from the 1960 adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine . It's his attempt to recapture the memory of seeing the film in theaters with his father. Dr. Ron Mallett is a theoretical physicist whose story begins with a tragedy. He was only 10 years old when his father died suddenly of a heart attack. Distraught, he sought solace in science-fiction. After reading The Time Machine , Ron dedicated his life to studying physics. He has since become a professor at the University of Connecticut and is now working on building a real time machine in the hopes that he might go back in time to save his father's life. 

About the Speaker

Prof. Ronald L. Mallett received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from Penn State. He worked for United Technologies from 1973 to 1975, and in 1975 joined the physics faculty at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, where he is currently research professor of physics. Prof. Mallett has published numerous papers on black holes and cosmology in professional journals. His breakthrough research on time travel has been featured extensively in the media around the world, including print media such as New Scientist , Die Zeit , GEO , the Boston Globe , the Hartford Courant , Rolling Stone magazine, and The Wall Street Journal , and broadcast media such as NPR’s This American Life , Science Busters , the History Channel, the National Geographic Channel, the Science Channel, ABC’s Good Morning America , NBC’s Today Show , and CNN. Prof. Mallett appeared in the feature-length documentary How to Build a Time Machine , which won Best Documentary at the 2017 New York City Sci-Fi Films.

Prof. Mallett’s recently published memoir Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality has been translated into Korean, Chinese, and Japanese.

Rob Niosi began drawing and painting at a young age. When he was 8, he picked up his father’s 8mm home movie camera and began making short films. After studying filmmaking at New York's School Of Visual Arts, Rob began a career in film and video production. His credits include directing, producing, set design and construction, special effect make-up and cinematography but he is perhaps best known for his work as a stop-motion animator for such productions as The Reading Rainbow , Pee-wee’s Playhouse , and Peter Gabriel’s music videos.

His completed 12-year project, a full-scale artistic rendering of the Time Machine prop from the classic 1960 MGM film, is featured in the documentary How To Build A Time Machine .

Jay Cheel is a filmmaker from St. Catharines, Ontario. His feature debut, Beauty Day , premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City as part of their Canadian Front Programming Series. The film was also an official selection at the Hot Docs International Film Festival and was nominated in the ‘Best Documentary’ category of the 2012 Gene Awards. His second feature, How to Build a Time Machine , premiered at the Hot Docs International Film Festival and went on the screen at AFI Docs, The Rotterdam International Film Festival, and DOC NYC. Jay is also the co-host of the Film Junk, the internet’s longest running film podcast.

Our websites may use cookies to personalize and enhance your experience. By continuing without changing your cookie settings, you agree to this collection. For more information, please see our University Websites Privacy Notice .

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Department of Physics

Ronald mallett.

Professor Emeritus

Research Interests

My primary research interests are: general relativity and gravitation, black holes, relativistic astrophysics, and quantum cosmology.

  • Ph.D., Physics, Penn State University, 1973
  • M.S., Physics, Penn State University, 1970
  • B.S., Physics, Penn State University, 1969
  • 2013-present: Professor Emeritus and Research Professor, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut
  • 1975-2013: Professor, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut
  • 1973-1975: Research Scientist, United Technologies Research Laboratory

Professional Societies

  • American Physical Society
  • National Society of Black Physicists

dr mallett time travel

A Forgotten Time Travel Movie Helped its Director Prepare for Two Iconic Star Trek Films

Back to all the futures.

dr mallett time travel

When Time After Time was released 45 years ago this day, it brought the concept of time travel back to its Victorian-era roots by channeling the work of H.G. Wells , whose 1895 novel The Time Machine had introduced the idea to a broad audience. The 1979 movie, however, made Wells himself the story's protagonist. In the film, written and directed by Nicholas Meyer based on a then-unfinished Kent Alexander novel, Wells (Malcolm McDowell) constructs a time-travel device that’s hijacked by a colleague, Dr. John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner), who turns out to be Jack the Ripper. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Stevenson travels forward more than 85 years to modern-day San Francisco. Wells is right behind him, thanks to a fail-safe that automatically sends the machine back to its own time. As both react to life in 1979 — Stevenson inspired by the pervasive bloodshed, Wells horrified that his dream of a future utopia didn’t come to pass — Stevenson restarts his murderous ways while Wells falls in love with Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen), a free-spirited woman who eventually becomes the Ripper’s next target.

Time After Time was arguably the first major Hollywood film to use what we would now call a steampunk aesthetic since the early 1960s, when films like Master of the World (1961) and First Men in the Moon (1964) were released. But while those were set in a single time period, Time After Time dropped late 19th-century figures into the modern world. Using people out of history was fairly common in sci-fi and fantasy literature, but hadn’t been visualized onscreen quite like this before.

The film was Meyer’s directorial debut, although as a writer, he’d earned acclaim for his revisionist Sherlock Holmes novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and its 1976 film adaptation. Fittingly, the story featured Holmes interacting with real-life psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, foreshadowing Meyer’s use of H.G. Wells as a character. But more importantly, the DNA of Time After Time can be seen in Meyer’s later work as a writer and director of Star Trek films.

Meyer directed and co-wrote 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , in which a figure out of the past – the genetic superman Khan (Ricardo Montalban) – quickly adjusts to life in the present and wreaks havoc, much like Jack the Ripper. Meyer’s screenplay for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) used even more specific plot points that he’d tried out in Time After Time .

In both films, the main characters time travel to 20th-century San Francisco, where they must puzzle out concepts like currency and transportation. In Time After Time , Wells and Stevenson exchange old (but still valid) British currency for American dollars, while Captain Kirk (William Shatner) sells his antique glasses for cash in Star Trek IV . In an interview with IGN , Meyer mentioned repurposing a deleted Time After Time scene in which Wells is stuck at a “Don’t Walk” sign next to a punk rocker blasting loud music. In Star Trek IV , Kirk and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) are seated on a bus opposite a mohawked dude doing just that, at least until Spock uses the Vulcan neck pinch to shut him down.

Time after Time Malcolm McDowell Mary Steenburgen

Wells’ love interest, played by Mary Steenburgen, is loosely based on Wells’ wife, writer Amy Catherine Robbins.

Perhaps the biggest similarity between the two films, however, involves their female protagonists. At the end of Time After Time , Amy Robbins decides she wants to spend her life with Wells and travels back with him to his own time, the late 1800s. At the climax of Star Trek IV , marine biologist Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks), who’s developed a mutual attraction with Kirk, hitches a ride with the Enterprise crew to the future, where she’ll presumably look after the whales she helped save and grab dinner again with the captain.

Funnily enough, this idea later appeared in another sci-fi franchise featuring Time After Time’s Mary Steenburgen. In Back to the Future Part III (1990), Steenburgen plays Clara Clayton, a schoolteacher Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) falls in love with when he travels back to the Old West circa 1885. Just as Wells tells Amy he has to return to his own era, Doc tells Clara the same thing, and she responds the same way, expressing shock before ultimately deciding she wants to be with Doc as he voyages through time.

As Steenburgen recalled in a 1990 interview , “Actually, I've played the same scene in [ Time After Time ] and in [Back to the Future] Part III . I've had a man from a different time period tell me that he's in love with me, but he has to go back to his own time…It's a pretty strange feeling to find yourself doing the same scene, so many years apart, for the second time in your career."

But maybe it’s not really so strange when you’re dealing with movies about time travel. And in the case of Time After Time , Nicholas Meyer’s charming little sci-fi adventure impacted future films in ways that not even H.G Wells himself might have predicted.

  • Science Fiction

dr mallett time travel

Russian Scientists Used a Quantum Computer to Turn Back Time

The quantum system was kicked a tiny fraction of a second backward in time..

Tag Hartman-Simkins

Russian scientists have apparently reversed the flow of time in an experiment they conducted on a quantum computer.

The finding is unlikely to lead to a time machine that would work on people. But the team of physicists managed to restore IBM's public quantum computer to the state it had been in just a moment earlier, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature Scientific Reports  — a nuanced result, but one that could have striking implications for the future of computing, quantum physics, and our understanding of time itself.

"We have artificially created a state that evolves in a direction opposite to that of the thermodynamic arrow of time," Gordey Lesovik, a quantum physicist from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology who led the research project, said in a university-published press release .

 Great Scott

Lesovik's team worked with scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois to run thousands of experiments on a quantum system programmed to reverse time's arrow on a single electron.

After thousands of trials, the physicists managed to restore the quantum computer's earlier state about 85 percent of the time, but only if they were working with a simplified, two-qubit system. A more complex quantum computer with three qubits was too chaotic, and the time reversal experiment only worked 49 percent of the time.

Just like research into quantum teleportation has nothing to do with transporting people, there's no reason to link this study to the notion of a machine that could travel through time. Rather, the scientists hope that their work can help quantum computer scientists make sure their software is actually doing what it's supposed to by kicking it back through time and double checking its work.

READ MORE: Physicists reverse time using quantum computer [ Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology newsroom via EurekAlert ]

More on quantum computers: Scientists Are Building a Quantum Computer That “Acts Like a Brain”

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dr mallett time travel

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dr mallett time travel

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Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality

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Bruce Henderson

Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality Hardcover – October 4, 2006

  • Print length 280 pages
  • Language English
  • Publisher Thunder's Mouth Press
  • Publication date October 4, 2006
  • Dimensions 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
  • ISBN-10 1560258691
  • ISBN-13 978-1560258698
  • See all details

The Amazon Book Review

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How to Build a Time Machine: The Real Science of Time Travel

Editorial Reviews

From publishers weekly, about the author, product details.

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thunder's Mouth Press (October 4, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1560258691
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1560258698
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
  • #198 in Physics of Time (Books)
  • #2,242 in Scientist Biographies
  • #5,108 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies

About the authors

Bruce henderson.

Bruce Henderson is the author of more than twenty nonfiction books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller AND THE SEA WILL TELL, which was made into a highly-rated TV series. His latest book, SONS AND SOLDIERS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE JEWS WHO ESCAPED THE NAZIS AND RETURNED WITH THE U.S. ARMY TO FIGHT HITLER, hit the New York Times Bestseller List in 2018. Henderson's previous books include RESCUE AT LOS BANOS: THE MOST DARING PRISON CAMP RAID OF WORLD WAR II, and HERO FOUND: THE GREATEST POW ESCAPE OF THE VIETNAM WAR, a national bestseller which told the true story of U.S. Navy pilot Dieter Dengler, with whom Henderson served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CVA-61) during Vietnam. Henderson is also the author of TRACE EVIDENCE: THE HUNT FOR THE I-5 SERIAL KILLER and FATAL NORTH: MURDER AND SURVIVAL ON THE FIRST NORTH POLE EXPEDITION. An award-winning journalist and author, he has taught reporting and writing at USC School of Journalism and Stanford University. Visit his website: www.BruceHendersonBooks.com.

Ronald L. Mallett

Ronald L. Mallett received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the Pennsylvania State University. He worked for United Technologies from 1973-5, and in 1975 joined the physics faculty at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, where he is a professor of physics. Prof. Mallett has published numerous papers on black holes and cosmology in professional journals. His breakthrough research on time travel has been featured extensively in the media around the world, including print media such as New Scientist, the Boston Globe, the Hartford Courant and broadcast media such as NPR’s This American Life, the History Channel, and NBC’s Today Show.

Mallett’s recently published memoir “Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality” has been translated into Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and is to be made into a feature film by Spike Lee. Additional information about Prof. Mallett's time travel research can be found on on his homepage at: http://www.phys.uconn.edu/~mallett/main/main.htm

Customer reviews

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  • 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 69% 20% 6% 3% 2% 2%

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Customers say

Customers find the story compelling, thought-provoking, and warm. They describe the book as a valuable, exciting, and believable read for anyone interested in science. Readers also mention the book is well-explained and easy to understand for the lay reader.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the story compelling, thought-provoking, and mentally challenging. They say it enters a world of fantasy and memoir. Readers also appreciate the author's advanced concepts and easy explanations. Additionally, they say the book is truly inspiring and insightful.

"...This fantastic book is a combination of biography and the personal reason which motivated Dr. Mallett to study physics and related subjects in order..." Read more

"...Dr. Mallet's story is truly inspiring and remarkable. Great book!" Read more

"...conferences and classes as well, being a notably point, the author's advanced concepts and easy explanation offered to his public and students." Read more

"...on the path of theoretical physics cannot be anything other than deeply affecting ...." Read more

Customers find the book valuable, exciting, and believable. They say it's informative and a must-read for any serious reader. Readers also mention the book is great for laymen wanting to know about the theory of relativity explained.

"...Dr. Mallet's story is truly inspiring and remarkable . Great book!" Read more

"...This book is a must for any serious reader , to put in their collection." Read more

"I read the Time Traveler and I must say it really is a good book ...." Read more

"...Thank you Dr. Mallett for your very interesting and warm story...." Read more

Customers find the book well-written and easy to understand for the lay reader. They also appreciate the nice roadmap and good concept.

"This book is written so that anyone can understand . Dr. Mallet's story is truly inspiring and remarkable. Great book!" Read more

"...well, being a notably point, the author's advanced concepts and easy explanation offered to his public and students." Read more

"...I must point out, it is very well explained , and I believe even a person without a strong science background will find it comprehensible." Read more

"...All of this Mallet elaborates upon but also makes very easy for the layperson to understand ...." Read more

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IMAGES

  1. Time Traveler by Dr. Ronald L. Mallett, Bruce Henderson

    dr mallett time travel

  2. This professor has been looking forward to time travel all his life

    dr mallett time travel

  3. Proffesor Ronald Mallett on Time Travel

    dr mallett time travel

  4. 'I invented a time machine'

    dr mallett time travel

  5. Astrophysicist Ronald Mallett Believes Time Travel is Possible, Wants

    dr mallett time travel

  6. Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a

    dr mallett time travel

VIDEO

  1. Why top creators are leaving YouTube

  2. ROSE MALLETT The Purple Room

  3. Art Bell Midnight In The Desert Professor Ronald Mallett Time Travel

  4. 2015-10-06

  5. UConn Professor May Have Cracked the Key to Time Travel

  6. In Demand Podcast S2E4: Dr. Ronald Mallett--Time travel & the role of Black educators within STEM

COMMENTS

  1. Ronald Mallett

    In 1975, Mallett was appointed an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut.He was promoted to full professor in 1987 and has received multiple academic honors and distinctions. [5] His research interests include black holes, general relativity, quantum cosmology, relativistic astrophysics and time travel. [6] As of 2024, he is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of ...

  2. Travel back in time? Scientist Ron Mallett thinks he knows how

    Mallett posits that by twisting time into a loop, one could travel from the future back to the past - and then back to the future. And this is the idea of a wormhole, a sort of tunnel with two ...

  3. Astrophysicist says he has cracked the code for time travel

    This heartwrenching desire is what propelled astrophysicist Professor Ron Mallett on a lifelong quest to build a time machine. After years of research, Professor Mallett claims to have finally developed the revolutionary equation for time travel. The idea of bending time to our will - revisiting the past, altering history, or glimpsing into ...

  4. Time travel is something Dr. Ronald Mallett has been looking forward to

    This professor has been looking forward to time travel all his life 04:16. STORRS, Conn. - Dr. Ronald Mallett is a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Connecticut and one of the ...

  5. Time Travel by Ronald L. Mallett

    The 2003 BBC documentary " The World's First Time Machine ", directed by Ben Bowie and featuring Ronald Mallett, premiered in the USA on The Learning Channel on December 3, 2003. This documentary features some of Dr. Mallett's current time travel research. It has since been shown numerous times on The Science Channel. TIME TRAVEL - Ron Mallett ...

  6. Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a

    Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality - Kindle edition by Mallett, Dr. Ronald L., Henderson, Bruce. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality.

  7. Physicist Reveals His Secret Time Machine Project

    November 7, 200811:48 AM ET. By. Geoffrey Gardner. Dr. Ronald Mallett has been working on a time machine since he was 10. John Nikolai, Boston Phoenix. Dr. Ronald L. Mallett, a tenured theoretical ...

  8. Time traveler : a scientist's personal mission to make time travel a

    Mallett, Ronald L, Fourth dimension, Physicists -- United States -- Biography, Space and time, Time travel Publisher New York : Basic Books Collection internetarchivebooks; printdisabled Contributor Internet Archive Language English Item Size 383.7M

  9. Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a

    This is the dramatic and inspirational first-person story of theoretical physicist, Dr. Ronald Mallett, who recently discovered the basic equations for a working time machine that he believes can be used as a transport vehicle to the past. Combining elements of Rocket Boys and Elegant Universe, Time Traveler follows Mallett's discovery of Einstein's work on space-time, his study of Godel's ...

  10. Scientist Says Time Travel Is Possible With Ring Lasers

    A Scientist Says Time Travel Is Possible With Ring Lasers. So, just find some of those. Ronald Mallett is still working on rotating lasers to travel back in time. His working theory is based on ...

  11. Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a

    This is the dramatic and inspirational first-person story of theoretical physicist, Dr. Ronald Mallett, who recently discovered the basic equations for a working time machine that he believes can be used as a transport vehicle to the past. ... The foundation for Mallett's historic time-travel work is Einstein's theory of general relativity, a ...

  12. Making time travel a reality

    Dr. Ron Mallett is a theoretical physicist whose story begins with a tragedy. He was only 10 years old when his father died suddenly of a heart attack. Distraught, he sought solace in science-fiction. ... His breakthrough research on time travel has been featured extensively in the media around the world, including print media such as New ...

  13. Ronald Mallett

    Contact Information; Email: [email protected]: Phone (860)486-6487: Fax (860)486-3346: Mailing Address: Dept. of Physics, University of Connecticut unit 3046, 196 Auditorium Road, Storrs, CT 06269-3046

  14. Dr. Ronald Mallett Builds a Time Machine

    Thought time travel was just for the movies? Theoretical Physicist Dr Ronald Mallett has devoted his life to finding a way to build a time machine. Watch the...

  15. Scientists use a quantum computer to reverse time

    In the time reversal phase, they ran a program that modified the quantum computer to "evolve backwards," moving "from chaos to order.". In the final phase, the scientists relaunched the ...

  16. Physicists Have Reversed Time on The Smallest Scale by ...

    An experiment earlier this year shows just how much wiggle room we can expect when it comes to distinguishing the past from the future, at least on a quantum scale. It might not allow us to relive the 1960s, but it could help us better understand why not. Researchers from Russia and the US teamed up to find a way to break, or at least bend, one ...

  17. Time Traveler: Ronald L. Mallett, Bruce Henderson: 9781568583631

    Time Traveler. Paperback - November 9, 2007. by Ronald L. Mallett (Author), Bruce Henderson (Contributor) 4.5 256 ratings. See all formats and editions. This is the dramatic and inspirational first-person story of theoretical physicist, Dr. Ronald Mallett, who recently discovered the basic equations for a working time machine that he believes ...

  18. 45 Years Ago, a Forgotten Time-Travel Thriller Secretly Set the Stage

    When Time After Time was released 45 years ago this day, it brought the concept of time travel back to its Victorian-era roots by channeling the work of H.G. Wells, whose 1895 novel The Time ...

  19. Russian Scientists Used a Quantum Computer to Turn Back Time

    Russian scientists have apparently reversed the flow of time in an experiment they conducted on a quantum computer. The finding is unlikely to lead to a time machine that would work on people. But ...

  20. Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a

    Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality - Kindle edition by Mallett, Dr. Ronald L., Henderson, Bruce. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality.

  21. Travel Time Calculator

    Travelmath provides an online travel time calculator to help you figure out flight and driving times. You can compare the results to see the effect on the total duration of your trip. Usually, the flight time will be shorter, but if the destination is close, the driving time can still be reasonable. Another popular tool is the time difference ...

  22. Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a

    The foundation for Mallett's historic time-travel work is Einstein's theory of general relativity, a sound platform for any physicist. Through his years of reading and studying Einstein, Mallett became a buff well before he had any notion of the importance of the grand old relativist's theories to his own career. One interesting subtext to the ...