In his 40s, Ron Mallett was married, working as a physics professor, and deeply depressed. After work he would return home and go straight to bed. He’d given up on the dream he’d had since he was 10, and had lost his purpose.
Heart problems forced Mallett to take a medical leave of absence from teaching. During the break he realized that he couldn’t stand the thought of dying without giving his dream one more try. He threw himself back into his research, and after a flurry of activity, produced a short theoretical paper explaining how to build a time machine. You might expect the scientific establishment to scoff, but his paper seems to have been well received.
If it works Mallett’s time machine will send only one neutron back in time, but it is for real. He’s building the first prototype right now.
7 minutes. Link to Video
The video is a good overview, but This American Life’s January 2007 story is better. Mallett is in Act 2 starting at 35 minutes.
His book Time Traveler was published in October 2006. I haven’t read it, but the reviews say it’s written for a general audience. It centers around his life story, but there are a couple of chapters about his theories.
