Scientist Ronald Mallett became interested in this issue after the death of his father in order to return to that tragic year and 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
Now the 77-year-old scientist is confident that he has found a solution to the problem of time travel. According to him, you can return to the past by “twisting” the fabric of space-time due to the ring of moving lasers.
The rotation of black holes causes time curvature, so you just need to find an analogue of this phenomenon on Earth, Mallett explained.
“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.
Mallett declared that time travel into the past would be possible in the 21st century and possibly within a decade. Mallett used general relativity to attempt to substantiate his claims.
