Ron Mallett: has he done anything yet?

[Donald_Patterson]

K I heard about this guy around 3 or 4 years ago on the news talking about his desire to research time travel practically using idea's about lasers to make a wormhole or something but since then it seems there's not been anything about him or his progress.

 

I been to his site and not really seen anything new. Has this guy actually been doing anything with progress practically in time travel? he has brought out a book and been going to lectures and such telling everyone about his wonderful plans but has this guy actually delivered at all even slightly? of course if he did he would be all over the news but has he done ANYTHING at all for his quest (and ours) and also yes he said before in a news interview he would need a quarter of a million dollars to start the project but it has been around 3 years since then and i'm sure he must had got the money by now I mean it can't be that hard considering how much support he seems to have had from many.

 

So pls....anyone have updates on his work? did it just end up not working at all and he has faded away? I think it would be a waste of time if it was just b.s. seeing all the media hype and books and lectures he's given just to wind up his big idea being a waste of time.

 

Views on him pls and pls no John Titor wannabe's or wierdo's thx.

 

 

[TimeLord]

No.

 

 

[Darby]

So pls....anyone have updates on his work? did it just end up not working at all and he has faded away?

There's really nothing to update. Dr. Mallett pulled a grand stand trick back in 2002 and released his research to the UConn student newspaper and then the general press - before submitting it for peer review. Just a couple of problems. First, he's an employee of the university and was using university funds to, well, fund his work. His obvious self aggrandizing publicity stunt was more than embarassing to the university. Second, when he did submit his work for peer review he had it reviewed by an obscure French periodical that virtually no one in the physics research world reads. France is not known for being the Mecca of theoretical physics. People suspected that he was trying to sneak one bye by burying the paper in a foreign language periodical in another country where no one would see the review but he would still be able to tell the public (radio, TV audiences) that it was a peer reviewed theory. Once it was peer reviewed here it was found to be faulty as to the physics as well as the math. That was pretty much the end of the story and the reason why you haven't heard anything more for the past 5 years.

The following is pure speculation

 

I can imagine what really happened with Mallett. He was 57 years old in 2002 and had not made his mark on physics.

 

We have this stereotypical picture of the active and world famous physicist as being an absent minded but brilliant grey haired old man who walks around with two different colored socks and looks like he was dressed by a cement mixer. We have that picture because that's the image we have of Albert Einstein and how it was depicted in the 1950's sci-fi movies.

 

Unfortunately (for Mallett) the stereotype is wrong. Physicists who make their mark on physics do so in the vast majority of cases before they are 30 years old. By the time they are 60 they have virtually no chance of making that once in a lifetime discovery. The brain power - the youthful spark of brilliant insight - just isn't there anymore. Our view of Einstein is of the old man in the late 1940's to the mid-1950's. That was 50 years after he made his mark on world history before he was 30 years old. He was still brilliant but his creative star had long ago set in the west. After 1921 he never again made a new and significant discovery in physics.

 

In 2002 Mallett not only hadn't made any significant contribution to physics during his career he had languished as an Associate Professor until he was 42 years old. It took him almost 15 years to be given full professor status. He has the reputation, apparently well deserved, for being a great teacher. But his research career is mediocre. He's the "great glove - no bat" journeyman utility infielder that every club needs but only inserts into the starting line-up when the starter goes on the DL.

 

I believe that it's possible that Mallett wanted to be famous, new that he'd never get there through normal peer reviewed research so he decided to take a short-cut and set out to become famous regardless of the underlying science or the review of his peers. It worked, for a while. He's now going on 67 years old and has faded back to an obscure asterisk in the annals of Internet Science. Instead of becoming truly famous he acheived the status of "Fifteen Minutes of Fame".

 

End of Speculation

 

In the mean time he has received several written criticisms of his paper and he has yet to respond t them. It's been almost a decade waiting for his response. However, he did "get it" so far as using public funds for his personal attempt at fame. He's ready, willing and able to receive money from you to fund his, now, private project.

 

Caveat emptor: As I said, he has never responded to the critique of his paper. Instead he is apparently ignoring it. I'm not comparing his skill to Einstein's but Einstein made a similar mistake later on in life. He was told over and over that he was going down the wrong road with his attempt at a grand unification theory. He didn't listen but he did spent 50 years on a fruitless pursuit that damaged his reputation in the physics community for a long time. The difference is that Einstein was famous and wasn't seeking more fame. (Hell, Einstein was the equivalent of a rock star in the 1920's and 30's - and had the drop dead gorgeous groupie babes to proove it. ) He believed in his pursuit for the sake of discovery. He didn't need a Wiki page to juistify his life's work. People might be tempted to toss some money Mallett's way but the physics just isn't there. His peers, and there were some really brilliant and well known physicists who responded with criticism, are not buying his "theory" and neither are the would-be capital investors that he needs to fund the project. He hasn't received the funds that he needs and I suspect that he never will. Too bad. Had this actually been a valid theory and had he done it right the first time he'd have research grants to continue his work. It's his own fault that he no longer has such access.