What this particular man is currently doing is pouring over some of the latest physics gleanings on the Gauge Theory of Gravity, Quantum Gravity, and M-Theory.
There is something that a lot of theorists are missing. Not sure I'm smart enough to see what it is, but it's huge. The "Elephant in the Room" kind of thing. It annoys me into reading a bunch of eggheaded stuff every now and then. I don't have the math to follow the equations, but most of the theories are easy enough to keep up with.
I'm such a nerd...
I'm inclined to agree with Einstein that "God does not play dice with the Universe."
In the same way, it seems intrinsically obvious that we will not be able to get "something for nothing." If the Universe is organized the way the Newtonian world is, that becomes true.
I wouldn't mind seeing some form of propulsion which did not depend on action-reaction. But I would expect to have to pay for it.
The idea that energy is out there, just waiting for a signal or catalyst of some nature to release it, seems untenable.
On the other hand, if one were a god, just giving the command, "Let There Be Light!" might be enough of a catalyst for such a reaction.
But we are not gods, yet.
If the heights of Physics are of interest to you, you will have a grand time here:
http://www.cheniere.org/
An essential ket to this website is the notion that the Lorentz transform, while it made Maxwell's equations usable to a broad base of people, oversimplified things and eliminated components that, had they not been eliminated, would make our present EM theory a very different thing from what it is now.
The present theory does not present a mechanism for a circuit to couple with the Heaviside energy component, only the Poynting energy. This is a great concern as the Heaviside component is orders of magnitude greater than the Poynting energy and, if we could couple a circuit to the Heaviside energy... Well, you can see where that kind of thing would lead.
Anyway, go play; there are many really cool things to read -- a few "Coast to Coast AM" kind of topics, but don't miss the gems in between.
Nerds are people too.
Good people.
:-)