Is Time Travel (and yes, I mean with two capital “T’s”) really possible? I haven’t ever knowingly traveled back in time, but ever since I saw Marty McFly travel “Back to the Future” with Doc’s special machine, I’ve wondered if Time Travel could ever become a reality. I recently read “Time Traveler” by Dr. Ronald L. Mallett in order to understand one man’s quest to build an actual Time Machine.

Dr. Ronald Mallett’s “Time Traveler”  is the true account of  one of the only African-American physicists in the United States and his pathway to his very own Time Machine. Like many of us hoping for time travel, Dr. Mallett is a dreamer, but also a dreamer with a doctorate in physics who believes that the machine he is building will allow him to travel back into time to one year earlier.

Although his autobiography reads a little bit stilted at times, it’s hard not to be fascinated by someone who is actually trying to make the dream of Time Travel possible and his personal story is compelling as well.  Not only did he pay his way through school on the GI bill, his reason for wanting to build the Time Machine is amazing. Dr. Mallet envisioned himself building a Time Machine in order to go back in time to communicate with his father who passed away when Dr. Mallett was young. Like me, he was inspired by books and films. In his case,  the book HG Wells “Time Machine”  and “Frequency” were pivotal in inspiring him both as a child and later as an adult.

The surprising thing about the book is Dr. Mallet’s admission about keeping quiet about his dreams. He waited quite a long time to confide in anyone about his unusual desire and later kept it a secret from his colleagues, primarily because he was worried about the reception he would receive from his fellow scientists in the scientific community.

The book also details a little of the science behind his ideas, and  is a little complicated for a layman such as myself. From what I can understand, his first “building block” was his own realization that there was a fifth dimension, which he backed up with math in his first major paper and later involves the twisting of space, which creates something that people are able to walk through. If you are more interested in the underlying science, check out his interview here in which he explains his theories more clearly.

I have also seen reports that Spike Lee himself will make a film based on the book.