ron mallett time travel

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Back to the father: the scientist who lost his dad – and resolved to travel to 1955 to save him

After losing his beloved father when he was 10, Ronald Mallett read HG Wells and Einstein. They inspired his eminent career as a theoretical physicist – and his lifelong ambition to build a time machine

P rof Ronald Mallett thinks he has cracked time travel. The secret, he says, is in twisting the fabric of space-time with a ring of rotating lasers to make a loop of time that would allow you to travel backwards. It will take a lot more explaining and experiments, but after a half century of work, the 77-year-old astrophysicist has got that down pat.

His claim is not as ridiculous as it might seem. Entire academic departments, such as the Centre for Time at the University of Sydney, are dedicated to studying the possibility of time travel. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is working on a “time-reversal machine” to detect dark matter . Of course there are still lots of physicists who believe time travel, or at least travelling to the past, is impossible, but it is not quite the sci-fi pipe dream it once was.

However, the story of how Mallett, now emeritus professor at the University of Connecticut, reached this point could have been lifted straight from a comic book. A year after losing his father, Boyd, at the age of 10, Mallett picked up a copy of HG Wells’s The Time Machine and had an epiphany: he was going to build his own time machine, travel back to 1955 and save his father’s life.

Mallett still idolises his dad, and thinks about him every day. He had been exceptionally close to Boyd, whom he describes as a handsome, erudite and funny “renaissance man” who would try to inspire curiosity in Mallett and his two brothers and sister. “When he passed away, it was like this light went out. I was in shock,” Mallett says down the line from his study in Connecticut.

Boyd had gone to bed with his wife, Dorothy, on the night of their 11th wedding anniversary and let out a deep sigh. It was only when she nudged him and his head flopped off his pillow “like a sack of flour” that Dorothy realised something was wrong. Mallett woke later that night to his mother crying uncontrollably and the news that his father had died of a heart attack. “I couldn’t comprehend how this was possible. To this day, it’s hard for me to believe he’s gone. Even after 60 some years,” he says.

Boyd had fought in the second world war and then, on his return home, used the GI bill, which helped qualifying military veterans with their tuition fees, to retrain in electronics. He would bring home gyroscopes and crystal radio sets, taking them apart and explaining how they worked to his children. After the family moved to a new apartment complex in the Bronx in the late 40s, Boyd took on work as a TV repairman.

“I adored him,” says Mallett. “One of the great pleasures for me was meeting him when he got off the subway and carrying his toolbox home with him. He just literally lit up the room when he would come in.”

Even though Boyd earned a modest living, he spoiled his children and their mother. “He worked very, very hard, he loved having a family, and he loved playing with us,” Mallett says. “One of the last things that I remember was – [on] one of the last Christmases – we wanted a bike, and he took on extra work. And all three boys got a bicycle; it was incredible for him to do that.”

After Boyd died, the bubble of safety he had created for his family vanished. Dorothy and the children moved to Altoona, Pennsylvania, to be closer to her parents. One day, as Mallett and his brothers were walking around their new neighbourhood to meet friends, they saw four white boys playing nearby and approached them to say hello. When they got closer, one of the kids spat the N-word at them. No one had ever called Mallett that before. Something in him snapped and he punched the boy until he apologised. “I was in the dark already. And that just added to that, I think. I was becoming unravelled because I was in a very deep depression after he died,” says Mallett.

Mallett never had cause to contemplate his race in the Bronx. “The neighbourhood that we lived in was predominantly a white Jewish neighbourhood. And I’d never experienced any feeling of prejudice. I was actually the only African American in the predominantly white Jewish Boy Scout troop, and I felt I was not treated any differently from any of the others,” he says.

Mallett became a truant and withdrew into the comforting fantasy world of books and magazines. One of these books was The Time Machine. “It somehow just spoke to me,” he says. “The very first paragraph changed my life. I still remember the quote: ‘Scientific people know very well that time is just a kind of space and we can move forward and backwards in time, just as we can in space.’” Inspired by the picture of the time machine on his illustrated copy, Mallett cobbled together a replica from his bicycle and his dad’s spare TV and radio parts. But, of course, it didn’t work.

In films, travelling through time is as easy as sharing a phone box with George Carlin, à la Bill and Ted; hitting 88mph in a DeLorean kitted out with a flux capacitor as in Back to the Future; or spilling a supercharged energy drink over a hot tub’s control panel, as in the 2010 film Hot Tub Time Machine. In reality, it’s slightly trickier. Well, travelling into the future is easy – we’re all doing it now in fact – but going back in time presents a far bigger problem.

Undeterred, Mallett kept reading. He came across an Einstein paperback. Even at age 11 he got the gist that, according to Einstein, time is not absolute. Mallett rationalised that the key to seeing his dad again was understanding everything in that book, so back to school he went, rising quickly to the top of his classes and graduating with straight As. Without the funds to go straight on to college, he joined the air force, intending to use the GI bill as his father had. “It was a very, very solitary life,” he says. He chose the graveyard shift so that he could study and “was just in my world, in my books”.

After the air force, Mallett enrolled at Pennsylvania State University and became one of the first African Americans to receive a PhD in physics. However, despite his academic success, he didn’t have the confidence to publicly discuss time travel. It was the 1980s and talking about it was still unheard of in “serious” academic circles; doing so could be career suicide. Plus, growing up in white America had taught him that no matter how high he climbed, he was still in danger of being disrespected.

It wasn’t until the mid-90s, when people were starting to talk about the possibility of time travel, that Mallett felt ready to be more open about his endeavour. Heart problems meant he had to have angioplasty surgery and he spent his months of recovery poring over his research. Mallett found his eureka moment in a black hole.

“It turns out that rotating black holes can create a gravitational field that could lead to loops of time being created that can allow you to go to the past,” says Mallett. Unlike a normal black hole, a spinning black hole has two event horizons (the surface enclosing the space from which electromagnetic radiation cannot escape), an inner one and an outer one. Between these two event horizons, something called frame dragging – the dragging of space-time – occurs.

“Let me give you an analogy,” Mallett says, with patience. “Let’s say you have a cup of coffee in front of you right now. Start stirring the coffee with the spoon. It started swirling around, right? That’s what a rotating black hole does.” But, he continues, “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.”

Although black holes are in short supply in this corner of the Milky Way, Mallett thinks he may have found an artificial alternative in a device called a ring laser, which can create an intense and continuous rotating beam of light – “light can create gravity … and if gravity can affect time, then light itself can affect time,” he explains.

Some of Mallett’s critics have objected that his time machine would have to be the size of the known universe, thus completely impractical. I put this to him. “You’re absolutely right; you’re talking about galactic types of energy in order to do that,” he acknowledges.

So, how big would your time machine be? “I don’t know that yet. The thing is that what is necessary first is being able to show that we can twist space – not time – twist space with light.” Only then, he says, will he know what is necessary to do the rest. Mallett likens it to asking the Wright brothers, straight after their maiden flight, for their predictions for how humans will reach the moon. All Mallett can tell us at the moment is that his time machine, however big, will look like a cylinder of rotating light beams.

Such an endeavour would, of course, not come cheap, but it’s highly unlikely that any government would pour its resources into time travel, and the only billionaire wacky enough to potentially fund such a project is busy with Mars and Twitter. Plus, here’s the rub. Even if clever engineers and barmy billionaires put Mallett’s theories into practice, it would only allow travel back in time to the point when the time loop was created, which could never be 1955. For all Mallett’s work and theories, there is no possibility of him travelling back to see his dad again.

How did he feel when he realised? “It was sad for me but it wasn’t tragic, because I remember that there was this little boy who dreamed of the possibility of having a time machine. I have figured out how it can be done.” Mallett also takes comfort in the enormous potential his machine could have for the wellbeing of life on our planet. “Let’s suppose that we had already had this device going on some years ago, and now we have medicines that can cure Covid. Imagine if we could predict precisely when earthquakes are going to occur, or tsunamis. So, for me, I’ve opened the door to the possibility. And I think that my father would have been really proud about that.”

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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 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.

“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.”

Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland. 

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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.'"

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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Time Traveler Paperback – November 9, 2007

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• Print length 239 pages
• Language English
• Publication date November 9, 2007
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.25 inches
• ISBN-10 156858363X
• ISBN-13 978-1568583631
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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books (November 9, 2007)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 239 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 156858363X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1568583631
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.25 inches
• #1,475 in Scientist Biographies
• #2,305 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)
• #3,174 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

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Astrophysicist says he has cracked the code for time travel

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

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Ronald Mallett lost his father when he was just 10 years old and has worked tirelessly ever since to discover a way to see him again.

Now, he believes he’s cracked the code to time travel.

The emeritus University of Connecticut professor touts rotating lasers as the key, which would, in theory, twist the fabric of space-time and create a loop that would allow backward time travel.

“The thing is, that what is necessary first is being able to show that we can twist space — not time — twist space with light,” he told the Guardian , noting that such a conclusion would allow the rest of his theory to unfold. But for now, he needs more research.

Time travel, a product of science-fiction lore, was a concept popularized by cult classics such as “Back to the Future” but hasn’t been attempted in real life — however, it’s been extensively studied.

Last year, Dr. Ana Alonso-Serrano told USA Today that while “logistically possible,” time travel requires tools such as wormholes or warp drives to create curvatures in space-time.

“In the moment that you carve the spacetime, you can play with that curvature to make the time come in a circle and make a time machine,” said Alonso-Serrano, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany.

The snag is finding a “physical, realistic, way to do it,” she added, noting that the “exotic matter” needed might not even exist.

But researchers at the California Institute of Technology miraculously made two small black holes in a quantum computer, noting that the tunnel shared characteristics of a “baby wormhole” — a small step for scientists focused on cracking the code for time travel.

A very determined Mallett, 77, is holding out hope. Although, there may not be an institution or a person with enough funds to take a chance on him and his astounding research inspired by his father’s death.

“When he passed away, it was like this light went out. I was in shock,” he said, rehashing the ill-fated night his mother discovered he had passed away from a heart attack.

“I couldn’t comprehend how this was possible,” he added, saying he “adored” his late father. “To this day, it’s hard for me to believe he’s gone. Even after 60 some years.”

Mallett’s dad had fought in the Second World War and became a TV repairman upon returning home. Despite a modest income, Mallett said his family was utterly spoiled — one Christmas, all three brothers were gifted bicycles, an “incredible” feat for his father to achieve with his earnings.

“I adored him,” Mallett continued. “One of the great pleasures for me was meeting him when he got off the subway and carrying his toolbox home with him. He just literally lit up the room when he would come in.”

But after he died, the family uprooted from The Bronx and moved to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Mallett recalls being met with bullies who called him the N-word. At the time, the now-emeritus professor was “depressed” and actually punched the taunting kid, later apologizing.

He found solace in books, namely “The Time Machine,” which he says “spoke” to him.

“The very first paragraph changed my life. I still remember the quote: ‘Scientific people know very well that time is just a kind of space and we can move forward and backward in time, just as we can in space,'” he said, remembering how he attempted to create a time machine replica comprised of his bike and his father’s old radio.

At 11, he discovered a book by Albert Einstein, whose theories about space and time inspired him to pursue further schooling, earning all As. He eventually joined the Air Force hoping to use the GI Bill to put himself through higher education, often volunteering for night shifts to keep his nose in books.

His studies at Pennsylvania State University earned him the esteemed title of one of the first African Americans to receive a Ph.D. in physics, but he stayed tight-lipped about his time travel aspirations. At the time, it would have been considered nonsense in “serious” academia and could have potentially ended his career.

Keeping his head down — and in his books — he continued to research and came across information on black holes.

“It turns out that rotating black holes can create a gravitational field that could lead to loops of time being created that can allow you to go to the past,” Mallett explained, using an analogy.

“Let’s say you have a cup of coffee in front of you right now,” he continued. “Start stirring the coffee with the spoon. It started swirling around, right? That’s what a rotating black hole does.”

Einstein, then, believed that space and time are related, he added, so a rotating black hole could “cause a twisting of time.”

But there’s a catch: There’s a lack of black holes. Although, Mallett believes it can be mimicked with a ring laser, which emits rotating light beams. Because “light can create gravity,” he mused, “and if gravity can affect time, then light itself can affect time.”

To be successful, the device would need to be about the size of the universe, deeming it pretty much impossible — yet Mallett isn’t deterred. At this point, he says his machine, size undetermined, will appear to be a cylinder of rotating streams of light.

Even if he were to somehow be granted funding for such an endeavor, Mallett’s decades of research might be for naught. He would never be able to see his late father again, despite that being his motivation.

In reality, the machine would only be able to grant time travel to a particular point — the moment the time loop was created — which couldn’t possibly be Mallett’s desired 1955.

“It was sad for me but it wasn’t tragic, because I remember that there was this little boy who dreamed of the possibility of having a time machine,” he said of his depressing realization. “I have figured out how it can be done.”

Instead, he hopes his research can birth new technology that could accurately predict natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis.

“So, for me, I’ve opened the door to the possibility,” he said. “And I think that my father would have been really proud about that.”

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Meet the scientist trying to travel back in time

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Ron Mallett, is an astrophysicist who has dedicated much of his adult life to the notion that time travel is possible. He's come up with the scientific equations and principles upon which he says a time machine could be created. (Scott Eisen/Bloomberg via Getty)

The past, it has been said, is a foreign country. And sometimes it's another country we yearn to visit.

We can't, of course. Whereas actual travel is limited only by how much cash we can spare, visa requirements and flight cancellations, journeying to times gone by is limited by the cold, hard laws of physics.

Or maybe it's not.

Joining the ranks of movie inventors like Doc Brown of "Back to the Future" are a few real-life scientists currently trying to realize the dream of turning back the clock to travel to the ultimate destination.

Among them is Ron Mallett, an astrophysicist who has dedicated much of his adult life to the notion that time travel is possible. He's come up with the scientific equations and principles upon which he says a time machine could be created.

While acknowledging that his theories and designs are unlikely to allow time travel in his lifetime, for years he's been working in parallel to a respected academic career to fulfill his dream of venturing back in time to see his beloved father again.

Mallett was aged 10 when his father died suddenly, of a heart attack, an event that the scientist says changed the track of his life forever.

"For me, the sun rose and set on him, he was just the center of things," he tells CNN Travel. "Even today, after all of these years, there's still an unreality about it for me."

Mallett's father, a TV repair man, instilled in his son a love of reading, and encouraged his budding passion for science. About a year after his father's death, a grieving Mallett stumbled across an illustrated version of the classic sci-fi novel "The Time Machine."

"The book that changed my life," he says.

Thanks to the imagination of author H.G. Wells, suddenly Mallett felt his family tragedy presented not an end -- but a beginning.

Sixty years later, 74-year-old Mallett is a professor of physics at the University of Connecticut. He's spent his career investigating black holes and general relativity -- the theories of space, time and gravity famously explored by Albert Einstein.

Mallett has also been theorizing about time travel, in the course of which he has embarked on his own personal journey: a complex and often contentious quest to build a machine capable of visiting the past.

He's still a long way from his destination -- some would argue he'll never get there -- but his voyage makes for a poignant story that dwells on the power of love, the potency of childhood dreams and the human desire to control destiny in an unknowable universe.

How to become a time traveler

Mallett first encountered the concept of time travel back in the 1950s.

"We hadn't even gone into space," he recalls. "And people weren't even sure if we could."

Growing up in New York City's Bronx neighborhood, and later in Pennsylvania, Mallett's family struggled for money.

As a self-described "bookaholic" he still found ways to get hold of reading material, finding comfort, after his father's death, among the the shelves of the local Salvation Army bookstore.

It was here that Mallett encountered the writings of Einstein, his next key inspiration.

He continued poring over science books throughout his teenage years and, after leaving high school, aimed for college via the G.I. Bill which supports US military veterans in their post-service education.

He enlisted in the US Air Force, where he served for four years, including deployment to Vietnam.

Eventually, Mallett made it to academia. He gained a bachelor's degree in physics, followed by a master's and a doctorate, specializing in Einstein's theory.

His first job was working on lasers at United Technologies, an aircraft manufacturer, looking into how they could be used to bore holes in the turbine blades of jet engines.

After a couple of years of applying mathematical theories in this practical setting, Mallet joined the University of Connecticut (UCONN) as an assistant professor of physics.

Through all of this, from Vietnam to back again, Mallett was quietly considering the possibility of time travel.

But he only began speaking publicly about his ambitions once UCONN made him a tenured professor, an open-ended academic position that grants holders the freedom to work largely free from fear of dismissal.

"I wanted to make sure that I got to that pinnacle of professionalism," he says, "Even then I was a bit reluctant."

He was aware of the "mad professor" stereotype. He wanted to ensure his ambitions weren't ridiculed and his job threatened.

But when Mallett began speaking openly about his ideas, he found they struck a chord with many others, something he says shows the universality of the desire to revisit the past. We all have, he says, regrets, or past decisions we wonder about, or people we've lost who we long to see again.

"People started contacting me, literally from all over the world about the possibility of going back in time," he says.

The science behind it all

Today, photos of Mallett at work show him surrounded by equipment in a cluttered laboratory, demonstrating his principles at work via small-scale experiments -- or standing, beaming, in front of chalk boards where he's etched out his formulas.

The personal aspect of Mallett's work is profoundly moving, but how plausible is the science behind his ideas?

It all hinges, says Mallett, on Einstein's special theory of relativity and general theory of relativity.

"To put it in a nutshell, Einstein said that time can be affected by speed," says Mallett.

Mallett gives the example of astronauts traversing space in a rocket that's traveling close to the speed of light. Time would pass differently on Earth than it would for the people in the rocket.

"They could actually come back finding out that they're only a few years older, but decades have passed here on Earth," he says.

Mallett points to the 1968 sci-fi classic movie "Planet of the Apes," at the end of which [spoiler alert] an astronaut realizes that he hasn't traveled to a distant, ape-ruled planet, but merely returned to Earth in a post-apocalyptic future in which mankind has been subjugated by simians.

"That is an accurate representation of Einstein's special theory of relativity," says Mallet. "So the upshot is that, according to the special theory of relativity, if you're traveling fast enough, you respectively are traveling through time. And effectively, that would be a representation of time travel."

However, this is all about going forward not backward, so how would this help Mallett's quest to be reunited with his father?

Einstein's general theory of relativity is based in the concept of gravity -- and considers how time is affected by gravity.

"What Einstein meant by that is the stronger gravity is, the more time will slow down," says Mallett.

Einstein's general theory of relativity says that what we call the force of gravity isn't a force at all, it's actually the bending of space by a massive object.

"If you can bend space, there's a possibility of you twisting space," says Mallett.

"In Einstein's theory, what we call space also involves time -- that's why it's called space time, whatever it is you do to space also happens to time."

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 openings.

Mallett suggests that light could also be used to affect time via something called a ring laser.

He's created a prototype illustrating how lasers could be used to create a circulating beam of light that twists space and time -- inspired by his first job experimenting with lasers' effect on airplane jet engines.

"It turned out my understanding about lasers eventually helped me in my breakthrough with understanding how I might be able to find a whole new way for the basis of a time machine," says Mallett.

"By studying the type of gravitational field that was produced by a ring laser, this could lead to a new way of looking at the possibility of a time machine based on a circulating beam of light."

Mallett's also got a theoretical equation that, he argues, proves this would work.

"Eventually a circulating beam of laser lights could act as a sort of a time machine and cause a twisting of time that would allow you to go back into the past," he says.

There's a snag though -- a pretty big one.

"You can send information back, but you can only send it back to the point at which you turn the machine on," says Mallett.

While his quest to go back to the 1950s isn't anywhere closer to a reality, he remains optimistic, and continues to ponder possibilities.

Realities of time travel

So could there be a not-too-distant future in which time travel is part of our daily reality? After all, we're entering a new decade in which once fanciful concepts like space tourism and hyperloop trains are entering the realms of possibility.

Maybe, but not everyone thinks so.

"Time travel into the past is allowed, potentially, in our theory of general relativity, how we understand gravity," says Paul Sutter , an astrophysicist who hosts a podcast called "Ask a Spaceman!"

"But every time we try to concoct a theoretical time travel device, some other bit of physics busts in and breaks up the party."

Sutter says he is aware of Mallett's work, and thinks it's interesting, if not necessarily on track to deliver results.

"I don't think it's necessarily going to be fruitful, because I do think that there are deep flaws in his mathematics and his theory, and so a practical device seems unattainable."

Serious criticism of Mallett's theory was voiced in 2005 by Ken D. Olum and Allen Everett , of the Institute of Cosmology, Department of Physics and Astronomy at Tufts University. They said they'd found holes in Mallett's equation and the practicality of his proposed device.

British science writer Brian Clegg looks more favorably on Mallett's ideas, he also profiled the scientist in his book, "How to Build a Time Machine."

"While not everyone agrees that his planned device would work, I think it's an interesting enough proposition to go for an experimental trial," says Clegg.

"If it did work, it should be stressed that it's not a practical time machine, it would simply produce a tiny but measurable effect, which would demonstrate the principle."

Mallett is quick to clarify that his ideas are theoretical.

He says he's currently trying to get funds to conduct real-life experiments.

"It's not like the movies," says Mallett. "It's not going happen at the end of two hours, at the cost of whatever it is you pay for the movie ticket. It's going to cost."

Movie comparisons are a common theme of conversation with Mallett. He relishes explaining concepts about time travel through cinematic examples.

When asked about the ethical implications of going back to the past, he suggests there'd be a need for international regulation and policing, and namechecks 1994 movie "Timecop," in which Jean-Claude Van Damme plays an officer working for an agency regulating time travel.

Another favorite, says Mallett, is the 2014 Christopher Nolan movie "Interstellar," which deals in ideas of how time impacts people in space differently than people on Earth.

That movie's scientific credentials were boosted by the involvement of Nobel prize-winning theoretical physicist Kip Thorne.

But Mallet also appreciates the emotional core of the movie -- the father-daughter story that drives the plot: "It's beautiful," he says.

Movie magic

Hollywood has come calling for Mallett a few times. A proposed adaptation of "The Time Traveler," an autobiography he co-authored in 2008, fell through despite the involvement of celebrated director Spike Lee.

Mallett says a major production company has now bought the rights to his story and there's another cinematic project in the works.

Even after a lifetime spent investigating time travel, Mallet may never physically go back to 1950s New York.

But, thanks to the magic of cinema, he may yet get a glimpse of the past, that "foreign country", and, in a way, meet his father one last time.

"The idea I will actually be able to see my father on the big screen, it will almost be like bringing him back to life for me," says Mallett, poignantly.

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The Story of Ron Mallett: The Man Trying to Invent Time Travel

The story of Ron Mallett sounds like a trope straight out of the colorful pages of a comic book. Driven by personal tragedy, a boy’s pursuit of mastery over time leads him to become a theoretical physicist researching time travel. But before we dive into the science bits, let’s take a little stroll through time and get acquainted with the story behind Ron Mallet and his quest to build a functional time machine.   

Ronald Lawrence Mallet was born in Pennsylvania in 1945 and was the oldest of four children to Dorothy and Boyd Mallet. As a boy, Ron was incredibly close to his father. According to him, the two spent a lot of time together. His father, a television repairman, instilled in young Ron a passion for science, research, and reading. Unfortunately, when Ron was ten years old, his father died suddenly, at age 33, of a massive heart attack, which left Ron devastated and depressed.

Approximately a year later at 11 years old, Ron found a Classic Illustrated comic book iteration of H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine . Inspired by its narrative , he decided to travel back in time to save his father. Having access to bike parts and television set components his father used to work with, Ron tried making something that would at least resemble the machine depicted in the comic book. Of course, the machine didn’t work, but that didn’t deter him from his idea.

This idea evolved into a lifelong obsession, a driving force behind his educational pursuit, and the basis for his research into time travel. However, he couldn’t afford college, so he enlisted in the army and spent four years serving in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. He returned to civilian life in 1966 — the same year Star Trek started —and decided to further his education, as he became entitled to a subsided university degree.

Finally, in 1973, at 28 years of age, Mallet earned his Ph.D. in physics from Pennsylvania State University and the Graduate Assistant Award for Excellence in Teaching. Soon after, in 1975, Ron was appointed as an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut. He was later promoted to a full professor, receiving numerous academic honors and distinctions. His research interests include general relativity, black holes, and the topic he’s best known for — time travel.

Ron never abandoned his idea of building a time machine and returning to save his father. His work’s foundations lay in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity , which introduces time and space as four-dimensional spacetime. At its core, the theory states that what we call gravity (explained by Newton’s law of universal gravitation) isn’t a force at all.

Instead, it explains the bending of space by massive objects since spacetime tells matter how to move. Matter tells spacetime how to curve. According to Einstein’s theory, whatever you do to space, also happens to time — and that’s where Ron Mallet made his breakthrough. Ron solved Einstein’s gravitational field equations and found out that if gravity can affect time (and it can), and light can generate gravity, then light can affect time and bend it.

Ron posits that bending and twisting time in a loop would allow us to time travel. He suggests that light, as a creator of time-affecting gravity, could be used to actually twist time. So, he created a ring laser that loops the light and can be used to twist space and time. Unfortunately, there’s a catch in his work. His “time machine” could only be used to send information back in time, and only back to a point at which the machine was turned on, and not before that.

There are also other limitations to his theory — the current iteration wouldn’t be able to send people back in time. However, if Ron, or any subsequent scientists working upon the foundations laid by Einstein and Mallet, ever found a way to send people back, they would only be able to travel back to the point at which the machine became operational. So, we wouldn’t be able to go back and visit our ancestors, but our descendants might be able to visit us.

What does that mean to Ron, a member of the  American Physical Society  and the  National Society of Black Physicists ? Well, it’s certainly a scientific accomplishment. But for the 10-year-old Ron, that means that he won’t be able to travel back to the 1950s and save his father from dying of a heart attack. Still, the practical, real-world applications Ron’s breakthrough has brought — the ability to send back information — could be life-altering on a global level.

Imagine being able to prevent the loss of human life thanks to the information regarding a massive earthquake or a tsunami you have received in the future . For the time being, Mallet is still vocal about his ideas being theoretical, as he’s aware that practical experimentation would be exorbitantly costly and require an insurmountable amount of energy. But if it could provide even a tiny measurable effect, it would demonstrate a working principle.

It’s highly unlikely that Ron would ever get the opportunity to meet his father again during his lifetime, but his brilliant work could end up in the pages of history on how a tragic event sparked inspiration that led to humanity’s first steps toward temporal mastery.  

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Ronald Mallett’s Conception of Time in Physics

If gravity can affect time, and light can create gravity, then light can affect time, says physicist Ronald Mallett.

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Time travel is a dream for many of us.

Time travel is science fiction, but Ronald Mallett, professor emeritus of physics at the University of Connecticut , is convinced that one day we will be able to travel in time. As a theoretical physicist, he specializes in Einstein’s general theory of relativity and focuses on black holes , the Big Bang Theory, and time travel.

In a video interview with EE Times Europe , Mallet explained what time means and how time travel might one day be possible.

“Time is connected with duration,” said Mallett. “It’s the persistence of existence; it has to persist in order to exist.”

“Einstein said there are ways that time can be altered,” Mallett continued. “I have to understand Einstein, because if I understand Einstein, then I might be able to figure out how time can be altered.”

“If gravity can affect time, and light can create gravity, then light can affect time. That is the core of my work.”

A ring laser creates a circulating beam of light, like a mirror square on each corner, and bounces the light off each mirror. By solving Einstein’s equations of the gravitational field, Professor Mallet has studied the behavior of space and time in the region of the circulating beam of light.

“What I found is that two different things happened: A circulating beam of light actually causes a twisting of empty space,” Mallett said. “The way you can think about this is: Let’s say you have a cup of coffee, you think that the coffee is like empty space, and you think that your spoon is like the circulating beam of light. If you stir the coffee, the coffee starts to swirl around, that’s what the circulating beam of light is doing to empty space, it’s making it swirl around.”

Space and time are connected in Einstein’s theory.

“Imagine you have a piece of paper and you draw a straight line on it. Imagine that you put the past in the middle of the paper, the present at the top of the line and then in opposite point the future. Now, I could twist the space of this line into a loop: I could move along that curve to the present, continuing along that curve to the future. So, by twisting the space, I can twist the links in a loop. And this loop in time can allow me to go back in the path. The circulating beam of laser light could actually cause a twisting of space at that point and thus a twisting of time,” said Mallet.

Here comes the possibility of a laser-driven time machine.

Relativity and Time Travel

Fundamentals of Quantum Physics

Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio holds a Ph. D. in Physics and is a Telecommunications Engineer. He has worked on various international projects in the field of gravitational waves research, designing a thermal compensation system (TCS) and data acquisition and control systems, and on others about x-ray microbeams in collaboration with Columbia University, high voltage systems and space technologies for communications and motor control with ESA/INFN. TCS has been applied to the Virgo and LIGO experiments, which detected gravitational waves for the first time and earned the Nobel Prize in 2017. Since 2007, he has been a reviewer for scientific publications for academics such as Microelectronics Journal and IEEE journals. Moreover, he has collaborated with different electronic industry companies and several Italian and English blogs and magazines, such as Electronics World, Elektor, Mouser, Automazione Industriale, Electronic Design, All About Circuits, Fare Elettronica, Elettronica Oggi, and PCB Magazine, as a technical writer/editor, specializing in several topics of electronics and technology. From 2015 to 2018, he was the editor-in-chief of Firmware and Elettronica Open Source, which are technical blogs and magazines for the electronics industry. He participated in many conferences as a speaker of keynotes for different topics such as x-ray, space technologies, and power supplies. Maurizio enjoys writing and telling stories about Power Electronics, Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, Automotive, IoT, Embedded, Energy, and Quantum Computing. Maurizio has been an AspenCore content editor since 2019. He is currently editor-in-chief of Power Electronics News and EEWeb and a correspondent for EE Times. He is the host of PowerUP, a podcast about power electronics, and the promoter and organizer of the PowerUP Virtual Conference, a summit where each year great speakers talk about the power electronics design trends. Moreover, he has contributed to a number of technical and scientific articles as well as a couple of Springer books on energy harvesting and data acquisition and control systems.

77 thoughts on “ Ronald Mallett’s Conception of Time in Physics ”

Thank you very much for this very interesting and thoughts stimulating interview

I think it is not possible cuz Time travel means going form present to past or present to future as in this process the whole universe are also involved. In compare to universe the earth is very tiny whereas the energy needed to time travel is impossible for whole universe from our tiny earth controlled by a human 🤣🤣🤣 Just time waste Think about controlling the poor and poverty Throughout the world then after think about it

Am sorry but if all inventors believe you then we would not be enjoying the speeds in distance communication🧐🧐🧐🧐

We can’t in our past from present, but we can slow the time we normally pass…

If you think it in a bigger way from space then you’ll find that it is possible It’s not hyped up for nothing

WE ARE IN THE PAST

Means …?

You are absolutely right. Thanks a lot.

Science never understands poverty or things connected with heart. It’s only working through mind .

That’s a great talk bro

So if gravity can affect time..and the light creates gravity…what if a car can go as fast jump a ramp and straight into a beam of light….can alter the universe…and send you to a different universe at the same time and place

I’m really interested.😊 What bothers me now is how speed affects time thus time traveling

True it is really interesting.I think time travel is possible in the way you have explained.

Ok let’s imagine a totally empty room. I put a stick on the ground. After one year, I put a ball next to the stick. And after another one year, I add a stone to that empty room. Now after these two years, I have a stick, a ball and a stone in the room (which in fact was empty two years before). Now tell me what could be concluded if i take away the stone (I just traveled a year back), and same way if i took away the ball (two years back in time), finally taking away the stick (takes me back to the moment i just put it there)… What I am trying to say is there is no paradox at all. Entropy and/or time is just one directional. There is no going back. If there is anything to go back is matter. Just matter defines time. Without it, time is just imaginary.

Very very true and simple explanation

How close are we to time travel. Is it possible in our lifetime.

10000……♾️% “NO”. NOT POSSIBLE TO TRAVEL BACK IN TIME. IN WORST CASE, IF WE GOT TO TRAVEL BACK IN TIME ,WE WILL BE LOOSING OUR EXISTENCE. IF MATTER IS ABSENT HOW WILL YOU TIME TRAVEL ??

Yes I 100000% agree with you! Regard : m Asghar BS physics from Punjab university Lahore Pakistan

I believe it’s true just like it’s in flash point, flash point can be created, by running excessive energy of lightening,

Yes we can eassly time travel I have some probability For time travel if we become smaller like a photon then we are able to move in the speed of light or in vaccum light speed become faster so we can use fastest spacecraft iñ space because space has a lot of vaccum space

If anyhow we can will be able to decrease our size then why won’t we can increse photons size because as my thinking if we become small and then do time travel then the place where we will reach there also we will be small only. What do you think about this 🤔.

Is it possible to have time travell or time machine in this century only….if yes then how and make a new video on it and throw some light on it to explain it clearly…..thnk u……

I hope 🤞 Ronald can save his dad

No grand father paradox doesn’t allow that to be happened

Time travel as I understood. If you are watching a star say 100 light years away from earth, you will be seeing it in a state how it was in 1921. Now if you can travel towards the direction of the star in a speed faster than light, then you can see, say 50 years ahead ie 1971. So for a person on earth it is his future perception of the star, that he will be able to see only in 2071. This is time travel,as I understood.

I believed that time travel is possible, as it was theoritically proved by scientists.But the case is that we can’t do it now because we are rudimentary knowledeable concerning the modern ideas in science and technology, and its somehow a metaphysical issue.

I belive Time-Travel is possible.

The curvature of space-time space is propagated immeddiately and not at the speed of light (Because time is zero in the dark energy in empty space)

When rockets have been sent far trough the space, you have noticed that Einstein’s formulas need a correction term.

If you assume that the curvature of the space occurs immediately and not at the speed of light the correction term is not needed to get an exactly calculating result.

See the theory below.

TIME ARROW IN EMPTY SPACE (in the dark energy)

In empty space particles are moved due the quantum fluctuations in the dark energy. Quantum fluctuations are caused by matter and anti-matter appearing in equal amounts thereby propelling particles.

It is considered that time moves backwards in anti-matter (Feynmans diagram). Therefor in empty space no time exists since particles move the same amount forward and backwards in time and the sum of times arrows are zero.

This explains why the value of the probability calculations are exact right if particles are taking every possible way between two points, (by Feynman’s path-integral) this also explains why particles seem to know that they are going to be measured and react accordingly.

Past, present and future exists all at the same time since time doesn’t move in empty space and the entropy in dark energi is constant. ( Quantum fluctuations in the dark energy mean maximum disorder which means that time disappears )

de Broglie’s-Bohm’s Pilot waves are quantumfluctuations in the dark energy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_wave_theory

Pilot wave theory – Wikipedia

In theoretical physics, the pilot wave theory, also known as Bohmian mechanics, was the first known example of a hidden-variable theory, presented by Louis de Broglie in 1927. Its more modern version, the de Broglie–Bohm theory, interprets quantum mechanics as a deterministic theory, avoiding troublesome notions such as wave–particle duality, instantaneous wave function collapse, and the …

en.wikipedia.org

DARK MATTER

The dark energy consists of quantum fluctuations with both matter and antimatter, both react to the gravity space-time curvature acceleration. The galaxies are therefore attracting the dark energy which also are subject to the acceleration at same time.

This means additional mass which also slows down time according to Einstein’s formulas for acceleration and gravity.

All this would explain why galaxies seem to spin too fast according to the visible mass. Then no dark matter is needed (ounly dark energy) as an explanation for the too faast galaxiesspin.

SPACE-TIME CURVATURE

The 4 th dimension of space-time curvature is the acceleration (gravity) that acts on the quantum fluctuations in the dark energy in empty space. It is the effect of gravity on the quantum fluctuations in the dark energy in empty space that constitutes what we call the space-time curvature in the 4th dimension.

Ps. The theory is easy to test in reality.It means that space-time curvature occurs immediatly and not at the speed of light

Because no time exist in the dark energy, this open the possibility of communication immediately across the whole universe using quantum fluctuations in the dark energy.(pilot waves)

Bernt Grannas (Dipl.ing)

Yeah, I’ve recently gotten heavily into physics and quantum physics and learned about the time travel theory’s because it held similar elements to the warp drive tech from the NASA engineer, essentially it bends spacetime around itself so that it can move faster than the speed of light though its only theoretically possible because in order to test it weed need a ship 1/3 the size of earth but it still made me think about how time would flow within the ship itself if it is warping time and space around it.

Sir according to this way we can go in past and future easily. But we can’t come back in present if we go in future so may be we create time mechine again but in past that is allmost impossible. Because our time mechine create by this idea work but can’t come with us in past and future that’s why we need to make a new time mechine in past or future for come back in present.

Yes We need to create another one time machine But if we use any other possible things those we can easily take to the past We would not have any need to create again

Sir, how could we find an exothermic material that will be able to stabilize a wormhole to go back in time.

What’s the speed of the object which want to escape from the singularity of the blackhole

Aren’t we actually traveling through time now?

No we flow with time

(1)We can go from present to future, how can it be possible ? Please send an answer. (2)How can we do time travel? Please answer.

Suppose we have a time traveling machine and we used it and go back to past and change something like any incident or casualty ( like saving someone from death due to any accidents) so does it affect anything or anyone in present

IT CAN CHANGE THE WHOLE UNIVERSE TIME

how The light affect human activity and his time management…??? That is time …

Time traveling possible … If a person can be born, he can also die … If there is a substance that can’t stop time or strength … then it is possible to build an engine with a speed higher than the speed of light.

I love this topic,i would want to experience time travel so i can change somethings in life

Sir as you say that we suck other solar systems, whose sun could we do that . Thnx

Yes,this phenomenum can work ‘twisting time’

What if we make a device that stores unlimited energy (time machine ), and from any other solar system or from some other sun we sucks energy and move that energy to our machine (time machine ) and use it to gain/have the speed higher than the speed of light?

Extremely difficult tending to impossible……

Future will need existence. If there is no existence wrt time then how can we travel in future? Same is applicable to past. The only valid point is present which is real truth in existence. The rest is just a thought and imaginary….

Somehow you are right but If u travel to the time From their point A new time line is created

I think we can time travel through Quantum realm Because in quantum realm The time doesn’t work like ours. In there your upcoming future maybe it’s your past If we find the way there then we can travel And we can travel through space also But we need speed of light And through worm hole too

Time travel is possible nowadays.

No brother. Time travel is possible but in some conditions.

I think Mallett’s theory is right I mean just by altering space with a circulating beam of light we could possibly alter time because time and space are interwoven. And this makes time travel more of a reality than just a science fiction. My question would be if Mallett believed that a loop could be created to connect the past, present and future, how do we combine the law of gravity(law of motion) with the law of time or time travel in crating a loop which connects the past, the present and the future in taking a step closer to Mallett’s dream of time travel?

If you time travel it means everything else in the universe has to time travel too so that you can meet in the past or in the future..now assuming that the machine created was only for you does it mean u will time travel alone. No it’s impossible

I think it’s possible to travel through time but what will happen to the state of your body. Will you age faster as you are going to the future or will it go backwards as your body might experience changes as you are traveling through time or the energy fluctuation from the time travel can cause mutations on the human body.

Well I believe it is possible to travel to the future or maybe the past through speed but not in the same place at the same time. Probably with some days or hours difference. For example, If today is Sunday in my country and that same day is Monday in another country, I could travel fast and experience Sunday as many times I can travel fast but maybe not in the same place.

I just time travelled through this comment, if a light energy with matter goes through space, it can be able to travel through light in an empty space were time is constant.

Why there is only space and time, there may be more dimensions to it. There may be a relative distance to be considered.

To locate the where exactly in space we have been placed from the point we head started.

We will never be able to travel in time. Suppose if possible they will only travel in present (from one place to another) not to past or future.

It’s not possible for us to travel back in time except we attain a certain velocity greater than that of light, which is impossible because for us to travel at that speed we need to be weightless likes photons of light. And since we have mass, we can’t attain close to that speed.

We’re yet to attain a machine with speed of at least 1/3 of light speed, we’re far away from realizing our dream (Time travel).

Because ‘time’ is a concept only, time travel is possible in imagination only. If anyone thinks it’s more than a concept then please tell me what it’s made of?

In my opinion, going back in time is just not possible. The only way of going back in time is to put your brain back where u wanted the past to be. I think it’s all what you believe, if you insist your brain to believe something which is in the past, trust me you feel like being in the past or maybe future wherever you want to.

Time travel is possible for parallel universes. so time travel means you are in another universe by a black hole or wormhole etc. Since the time traveler will go to another universe, it does not change any event in our universe. I have chosen now and I am writing here. this choice. In another universe, the time traveler experiences events in which different choices take place. so it cannot affect any event in this universe. these choices can be called destinity in folk science

Time travel is possible when you dream and then wake up. How? When you dream, you might see some past or future stuffs, and when you wake up, you are in the present.

How about seeing images of the past rather than trying to be in the past. Imagery from computers and cameras are floating light. It’s always there. How a about machine that can be placed in a particular area at a certain time which is able to tap in floating imagery or frequency that may have been stagnant. E.g. like an antient temple or a cave

If time travel is possible, our existence will go and we will die immediately, since the energy we may be travelling with speed of light our body cannot withstand and is only imaginary, whereas we may become a soul without a body. Human body tolerates temperature to some extent only.

That theory is impossible. You can’t travel through the past or in the future with your body. It’s only the spirit which can travel through past, present and future

As l have understood you can not go back in time before the blackhole/the time machine was created. Einstein mentioned that the primary function of time is to keep track of events. So what the time machine is generally doing is keeping a track of events happening from the time it was created. What the time machine will do is to somehow take you/make you feel like you are living at that time yet you will still be in this current universe. That is why he said you can not alter the past because you will be in a parallel universe different from this one but with similar events as to the past. You will be just in this universe but the time machine will be showing you all the events that happened in such a way that you will be feeling as if you are living in that time too. Energy changes from one form to another, living things die, decay and change into matter or energy when absorbed. To go back in time I think it will mean that since no energy is lost, they will have to find a way to reverse the electrical energy into chemical, and keep on changing until the chain of conversion brings us back to a certain plant or human that died to initiate the flow and conversion of energy.

This is a very interesting subject about the concept of time travel.

I think, to understand this time travel which may appear to be fictional, it will be easier to grasp such concept if we read and understand the time and space theory of professor Emanuel Kant. To be more precise, just to perceive this concept of time and space, you may understand the existence. But more importantly, it becomes very hard to make anyone understand this theory. As, a person with colour blindness cannot see certain colour, it doesn’t mean that the colour doesn’t exist

Actually, colour is a construct of the brain. It does not exist without a brain processing the light of a certain frequency. Until that frequency of light is proceeded by our brain and converted into colour, it has no colour. Same with sound. Disturbances in the air are interpreted by our brain and perceived as sound. In a vacuum, there can be no sound as there is no air or anything else to be disturbed. What we experience and perceive as “reality” is just a construct of our human neurology.

If time is affected by light can we use light to break time block

Thank you for your information.

Far from being a mathematician I have long pondered time and its relative motion in our universe. If what you hypothesize that light is matter as well as gravity , why would magnetism not also be considered. A circular motion of magnetic field surrounded by light moving perhaps in opposite direction would trigger the bending of space.

Change the mirrors to crystals…..depending on face and angles of the crystals is what alters the fabric of space/time and you can’t forget energy, vibrations and frequency is also going to play a big roll in the and the RI which is the refract index in gemstones which is the way light passes through the stone….with this you’ll find with certain stones they will white out or turn clear (Hiddenite) is a good example of this effect as they say with this stone if I can see the stones and there light green color you didn’t take the picture right…..stealth technology will also be found within this as well, but yes crystals would be your go to with this….. One someone has to test so we can have light sabers is try putting out light or giving off light with a specific energy and vibrate that light at a certain frequency my bet is that light will turn into a solid state….

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Science on Screen

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.

Space Oddity: Astrophysicist Prof Cooks Up Equation For Time Travel

"For decades, the concept of time travel has captivated minds, inspiring countless works of literature and film. According to Earth.com, HG Wells' novel 'The Time Machine' was a pivotal moment for astrophysicist Professor Ron Mallett, sparking his lifelong fascination with the possibility of traversing through time.

Professor Mallett's journey began with a childhood marked by tragedy when his father, a television repairman and science enthusiast, passed away when Mallett was just ten years old. Seeking solace in books, he found solace and inspiration in Wells' words, pondering the notion: '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?'

Driven by his desire to reunite with his late father, Mallett delved into decades of research on black holes and Einstein's theory of relativity. Black holes, vast regions of space with gravity so strong that even light cannot escape, and the theory of relativity, which explores the relationship between mass, energy, and spacetime, became the foundation for his groundbreaking work.

Mallett's proposed time machine revolves around the concept of manipulating gravity using an 'intense and continuous rotating beam of light.' Utilizing a ring of lasers to replicate the distortions of spacetime caused by a black hole, his innovative device offers a potential pathway to unlocking the mysteries of time travel."