ABC TV - Time Travel: Fantasy or Science? Ron Mallett's Quest

THE STORY OF RONALD MALLETT

ABC NEWS - GOOD MORNING AMERICA WEEKEND
Father's Day, Sunday, June 21, 2009
Time Travel: Fantasy or Science?
Physicist Builds Time Machine to Save his Father's Life
By JOHN BERMAN and WONBO WOO
STORRS, Conn., June 21, 2009—

For some, the idea of time travel is about fantasy. For others it's science. But for Ronald Mallett, it was love -- a son's love for his father.

You might even call it his lifelong mission.

"I thought if I could build a time machine to save my father's life and see him again," said Mallett, whose father died when he was just 10.

"My father was someone who was the center of my life -- I was the oldest of four children and we grew up in the Bronx. And my father was a television repairman," Mallet said.

"He was terrific at his job, as a matter of fact. He really spent a lot of time with me, gave me little scientific toys like gyroscopes and crystal radio sets. I just I just worshipped him."

Mallet said he kept his plan a secret.

"I was astute enough to realize that people were worried about me already and if I told them that wanted to build a time machine I might not want to deal with the consequences," Mallett said.

People might think he was crazy, even though he has worked his way to a job as a tenured physicist at the University of Connecticut.

But it's not a secret anymore, because of something really crazy. He said he thinks he has come up with a way to do it.

It's complicated, but not crazy, according to some other scientists who have studied Mallett's idea.

Albert Einstein theorized that space and time are linked, and that gravity can bend time just like it bends space.

Mallett said he believes that if he can create a gravitational swirl -- a whirpool -- he can actually twist space and time.

"So if I'm twisting space violently enough, ultimately what will happen is that that timeline will get twisted into a loop," Mallet said.

Think of the loop like a time tunnel. Where Mallett thinks maybe we might be able to move back and forth. He said he will use criss-crossing lasers to try to create his time tunnel.

But even if Mallet builds his time machine, and proves his theory, which would be an epic breakthrough, there is still one major limitation.

"It only works from the moment the machine turns on," Mallet said.

That means you couldn't go back to a time earlier than the time when the machine begins to work. So Mallett could never go back to 1955 to see his father. But still, he said, he is certain his father would be proud.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/story?id=7889332&page=1
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They are currently among the greats of science, innovation, initiative and adventure: Stephen Hawking, John Archibald Wheeler, Lawrence Krauss, Michio Kaku, Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, Bill Gates, Richard Branson. And perhaps, before long, the name of Ronald Mallett will be added to that list of modern day pathfinders and pioneers. Mallett, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Connecticut, has been working on a time travel machine. The American physicist's invention would use a ring laser and Einstein's theory of general relativity. It would manipulate past, present and future by twisting Space and, along with it, Time into a loop. Imagine conquering the virgin frontier of Time like conquering the Atlantic or the Galactic. Reaching the distant shores of the past as the first European explorers reached the distant shores of America. But human travel through Time is probably a long way away. First things first. Dr. Mallet and his fellow scientists must first perform their historic experiment, and they are currently trying to raise $250,000 to do just that. The Univ. of Connecticut Foundation, a nonprofit agency responsible for managing funding, has opened an account for donations to Prof. Mallett's time travel research. The official name of this scientific program is "The Space-Time Twisting by Light Project". For more information on this project and how to contact Ron Mallett, see http://www.phys.uconn.edu/~mallett/main/main.htm

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[MegamanNG]

Because if time travel does succeed... then I'm packing a one-way ticket back to 1985 and I'm never going back.

[darkladyd]

can you scientists stop trying to make a time machine? you all might make a black hole and kill us all or a paradox!

[ImSuperhuman]

People say "oh it wont work cos of this this and this" how would a bunch of fags on youtube know?? Are you people pro in physics?? No

Im sure mallet knows what he is doing and is aware of the problems people have mentioned

[chingchombuela]

im touched with this man's reason for doing this...i would too.

[pochopaz7381]

@nycbassist76 Well its science fiction now it will be real after

[nycbassist76]

@pochopaz7381 lol would you look at your comment...i'll give you a moment..see anything weird? here's a clue..somethings not real that's fiction visa versa..this isn't real science fiction its scientific theory...sorry couldn't let that slide lol

[happinesson]

i am so touch with your intention of making this time machine. i lost my dad too, 2 years ago. and from then i am wishing if i could bring back the time..

[MegamanNG]

@SwatDomce88 Same here.

[SwatDomce88]

@MegamanNG you read my mind bro

[WARHEAD4201]

my dad died when i was 12 i always wanted to go back too

[doceigen]

LOL! I love this kind of silliness.  IF light can twist space, then one could make, a beam of light carrying modulated information, go into the past. The rest of this video is just an excuse, to spend lots! of money on super high powered lasers and a huge jig, to be able to send real particles, back in time... NO! The PROOF! would be to send information, and that can be done using a simple $1. laser pointer!!... except, it's NOT possible, and so all the money would have been wasted anywise.

[pochopaz7381]

@Cammofluage Believe it or not he is far smater than you