Teleportation Breakthrough
 

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Beaming people in Star Trek fashion is still in the realms of science fiction but physicists in Denmark have teleported information from light to matter bringing quantum communication and computing closer to reality.

Until now scientists have teleported similar objects such as light or single atoms over short distances from one spot to another in a split second.

But Professor Eugene Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University in Denmark have made a breakthrough by using both light and matter.

"It is one step further because for the first time it involves teleportation between light and matter, two different objects. One is the carrier of information and the other one is the storage medium," Polzik explained in an interview on Wednesday.

The experiment involved for the first time a macroscopic atomic object containing thousands of billions of atoms. They also teleported the information a distance of half a meter but believe it can be extended further.

"Teleportation between two single atoms had been done two years ago by two teams but this was done at a distance of a fraction of a millimeter," Polzik, of the Danish National Research Foundation Center for Quantum Optics, explained.

"Our method allows teleportation to be taken over longer distances because it involves light as the carrier of entanglement," he added.

Quantum entanglement involves entwining two or more particles without physical contact.

Although teleportation is associated with the science-fiction series Star Trek, no one is likely to be beamed anywhere soon.

But the achievement of Polzik's team, in collaboration with the theorist Ignacio Cirac of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, marks an advancement in the field of quantum information and computers, which could transmit and process information in a way that was impossible before.

"It is really about teleporting information from one site to another site. Quantum information is different from classical information in the sense that it cannot be measured. It has much higher information capacity and it cannot be eavesdropped on. The transmission of quantum information can be made unconditionally secure," said Polzik whose research is reported in the journal Nature.

Quantum computing requires manipulation of information contained in the quantum states, which include physical properties such as energy, motion and magnetic field, of the atoms.

"Creating entanglement is a very important step but there are two more steps at least to perform teleportation. We have succeeded in making all three steps -- that is entanglement, quantum measurement and quantum feedback," he added.

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Even if they make this work in my lifetime.....I don't think I'd ever let myself be teleported :( Ever see anything on the Philidelphia Project? Scary stuff back in WWII with the supposed teleportation (and following horifying consequences to the crew) of a battleship

or the fly! i would kind of like to be a fly, annoying certain people is fun (also possibly getting rid of their faces with vomit works as an idea)

I associate teleportation with Jeff Goldblum. And a giant steam press. :teek:

Interesting story, Katie. thanks. And don't be scared of the Philadelphia Experiment story... it didn't happen.

But this story is more about the relationship of quantum states between particles... so if you can change the state of one atom by doing something to the other. Extremely exciting as an advance toward quantum computer technologies... and as neat as Trek-like transporters would be, I like the idea of ultra-fast computers even more. Our ability to process data has always been the rate-determining factor in scientific progress, so faster computers mean a better understanding of nature and cures for diseases.

Cool! I'm not sure I would let myslef be teleported either. It would be alot better than other methods of travel though. It would probably be fine, just as long as I don't leave my soul behind and it only teleports my body, or I get stuck in the machine, deformed, or fused with an animal (unless it's a turtle:D J/K), or fused with another person, or any other horrible event.

Wow..thats pretty neat...and i agree with you Iris, that I think some of the greatest uses for this type of technology would be found in the realm of creating/modifying supercomputers to take computing to a whole new level...

Interesting story, Katie. I would let myself get teleported...only when they make sure it is safe and that I won't end up with an extra head or something. Cool, but not that good...

Yea 2 heads would completely suck...

I still think we are a lonnnnng ways off from being able teleport anything truly substantial...but still very cool

I wonder if they could copy people..?

Not only god.
 

A future with teleporting people would not only be god. Think yourself the world in a future where a thief can teleport himself into a shop in the middle of the night when noone is there, steal everything he wants and then teleport out again before the police arrives.

...because the police cannot teleport. It's a rule.

Where?
 

How should the police know where in the world the thief teleported?

I'd really be more afraid of being torn inside out or having my entire DNA and atomic structure torn appart.:o

I actually thought of the TV-whatever-it-was from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the book, thanks) when I read this. Though there are so many more painful ways it could go wrong... ouch.