One man has spent his life secretly researching time travel, and it seems that he has finally come close to solving one of science fiction's most ambitious endeavors, according to TechRadar.

Like something out of a science fiction novel, inventor Ronald Mallett had a tragic past which led to his lifelong research into the principles of time travel.

In 1955, his father abruptly died from a heart attack, and after a touch of inspiration from an H.G. Wells novel on time travel, Mallett became obsessed with traveling back in time to warn his father of his looming demise.

"For me, the sun rose and set on him," Mallett said. "My love for him is still as strong as it was 60 years ago."

Mallett spent his entire career keeping his research a secret, in fear of ruining his credibility as a scientist and inventor.

Now, at the age of 69, he has combined Einstein's theory of relativity and established physics to uncover a simplistic, but profound step toward time travel, according to Bloomberg.

"By using a circulating beam of laser light, I have been able to mathematically show that this can lead to a twisting of space and time," said Mallett. "By twisting time into a loop, it could be possible to travel back in time."

Time and space are linked, so if you bend light, it also affects time.

Mallett's time machine would not be able to send people back in time, but would instead send neutrons that would in turn carry a message.

Of course, as with most stories of time travel, there is a paradox involved, according to the Washington Post. If Mallett ever does find the funding to complete the prototype and succeeds in saving his father, he will never have had the insight or drive to create the time machine in the first place.

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