The Time Traveller: One Man's Mission To Make Time Travel A Reality

Description

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'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 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. The Time Traveller follows Ronald Mallett's extraordinary journey of self- and scientific discovery as he describes in simple language 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.

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 PhD in theoretical physics and is now a professor of 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 bestselling books, including And the Sea Will Tell and, most recently, True North- Peary, Cook and the Race to the Pole. He teaches writing at Stanford University, and lives in Menlo Park, California.

A fascinating man . . . mesmerizing * Judy Finnigan, Daily Express * This book makes for absorbing reading. -- Alexander Waugh * Telegraph * A hugely readable book, a fascinating subject and a delightful story. * www.popularscience.co.uk * Mallett never comes off as a puffy-chested smarty-pants. His delivery is humble, his voice enthusiastic, his optimism contagious. For anyone, but especially for the aspiring scientist, Time Traveler is a worthwhile and surprisingly entertaining read. -- Julie Mayeda * San Francisco Chronicle * . . . Mallett is such a great teacher that the complex ideas that shape modern physics aren't so scary under the professor's easy guidance . . . strange, interesting and ultimately touching memoir. -- Bruce Lieberman * San Diego Union Tribune *