The Time Traveller: One Man's Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality [Hardcover]

Research and theories flow nicely through this easy-to-read autobiography...simple prose makes for clear and concise explanations of the science involved.

Strange, interesting and ultimately touching memoir.

[Mallett's] delivery is humble, his voice enthusiastic, his optimism contagious...a worthwhile and surprisingly entertaining read.

'A hugely readable book, a fascinating subject and a delightful story.' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

The dramatic and inspirational first-person story of theoretical physicist Dr Ronald Mallett, who discovered the basic equations for a working time machine. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

At the age of ten, Ron Mallett's father died. Suffocating beneath the weight of his grief, young Ron picked up a copy of H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine" and was inspired to throw himself into a quest to find his own Holy Grail - a means to travel back in time and save his father from his untimely death. Remarkably, this working-class boy from the Bronx stuck with his vision, struggling with poverty and prejudice to become one of America's first black Ph.D.s in theoretical physics. Ronald Mallett discovered that circulating laser light could twist not just space (a phenomenon known as frame dragging) but also time, thus creating a time loop through which subatomic particles, information and perhaps one day even people might travel. "The Time Traveller" follows Ronald Mallett's extraordinary journey of self - and scientific discovery as he describes in simple language and elegant metaphor the physics that makes time travel possible. From Einstein's seminal work in relativity, to closed loops in time, to black holes and the birth of the universe, Ron Mallett lays out his theories and presents the reader with what is an actual blueprint for a time machine. A dramatic and compellingly human memoir, this is also a story of astonishing achievement. An experimental machine to travel back in time is now being designed at a university laboratory using Dr Mallett's theories and equations.

When Ron Mallett was ten, his father died. Suffocating beneath the weight of his grief, young Ron picked up a copy of H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine and was inspired to throw himself into a quest to find his own Holy Grail – a means to travel back in time and save his father from his early death. Remarkably, this working-class boy from the Bronx stuck with his vision, struggling with poverty and prejudice to become one of the first black Americans to receive a doctorate in theoretical physics. Ronald Mallett discovered that circulating laser light could twist not just space (a phenomenon known as frame dragging) but also time, thus creating a time loop through which subatomic particles, information and perhaps one day even people might travel.

The Time Traveller follows Ronald Mallett’s extraordinary journey of self- and scientific discovery as he describes in simple language and elegant metaphor the physics that makes time travel possible. From Einstein’s seminal work in relativity, to closed loops in time, to black holes and the birth of the universe, Ron Mallett lays out his theories and presents the reader with what is an actual blueprint for a time machine.

A dramatic and compellingly human memoir, this is also a story of astonishing achievement. An experimental machine to travel back in time is now being designed at a university laboratory using Dr Mallett’s theories and equations.

'The Time Traveller . . . skilfully interweaves the coupled dramas of growing up, transcending racial tensions, learning physics and chasing a long, long dream. The result is a fascinating biography.'
Fred Adam, Professor at the University of Michigan and author of THE FIVE AGES OF THE UNIVERSE

'The powerful story of a son's love for his father . . . provides deep insights into the influences, both positive and negative, that impact on an individual wishing to go into science, and the interplay between family, emotions, race and ambition.'
Ronald E. Mickens, PhD, Professor at Clark Atlanta University and author of MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE and MATHEMATICAL METHODS FOR THE NATURAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES

Dr Ronald Mallett was born in Pennsylvania in 1945 and grew up in the Bronx. In 1973 he was one of the first African-Americans to receive a Ph.D in physics and he is now a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Connecticut. He has published many papers on theoretical physics, and his time travel research has been featured in the TV special The World's First Time Machine as well as in publications as diverse as Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone and New Scientist. Bruce Henderson is the author and co-author of numerous best-selling books, including most recently True North: Peary, Cook and the Race to the Pole. He teaches non-fiction writing at Stanford University, and lives in northern California.