Beam Them Up, Scotty: Chinese Physicists Reportedly Break Teleportation Record

[bananas]

Source: Time

Harry Potter and Star Trek fans, rejoice! Teleportation is real. Using powerful lasers and optics to manipulate photons, or units of light, researchers in China set a record for teleporting a photon more than 10 miles, TIME reported in 2010. Now, a different team of physicists at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai say they have shattered that record, claiming to have sent a photon more than 60 miles.

Quantum teleportation, which has been around since 1997, is a little different than what you see in sci-fi movies. Considered “one of the holy grails of practical quantum communication,” as the scientists write in their abstract, teleportation is the ability to essentially move one object from one place to another without traversing the space in between. But, as Forbes explains, the actual object is not moving from point A to point B. Rather, the distant photon mirrors the information contained by the original photon, essentially becoming an identical twin.

The team’s greatest contribution is not necessarily the distance they’ve made that data travel, but the method it used to harness the 1.3-watt laser beam that carries it. The longer a beam of light travels, the more it spreads out, causing the photon to lose information and trail off course. To keep the beam on target, the researchers created a technique that focuses and steers the laser. Though beaming up humans and animals à la Star Trek is not on the agenda anytime soon, as the technology becomes more sophisticated, it will likely be applied to military communication.

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Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/15/beam-them-up-scotty-chinese-physicists-reportedly-break-teleportation-record/

[onehandle]

1. 'it will likely be applied to military communication'

Who needs missiles when you can just beam the H-Bomb there?

[Flatpicker]

2. Awesome in concept

They are not moving the object, they are recreating the photon in the new location.

So in order to not have duplicates, you would have to destroy the original.
This could be good news for ISP's in the future. Depending on cost vs increased infrastructure.

[EC]

3. Could this be used for wireless

energy?

[jeff47]

6. No

You are making the remote copy. That costs more energy than it contains.

This is a way to transfer information, not matter or energy.

[abelenkpe]

4. Bummer

"Though beaming up humans and animals à la Star Trek is not on the agenda anytime soon,..."

I hate driving in LA. Or really anywhwere. Was really hoping for the star trek version of teleportation.

[Kelvin Mace]

10. OK, but you first.

Since the transporter in the Trek universe works by destroying you, then recreating a copy of you somewhere else, I am not anxious for the experience.

Also, as I recall from a physicist writing on the subject, even assuming multi-magnitude increases in computing power, the time required to precisely record the location and state of the 70 Octillion atoms in the average human body would require more time than has passed since the creation of the universe.

Definitely NOT for anyone in a hurry.

[pinboy3niner]

15. And besides...

[pscot]

5. I don't think that word

means what they think it means.

[DRoseDARs]

7. This is what happens when non-scientists write science articles...

If anything, this may be a quantum entanglement (entanglement /= teleportation) experiment but the article is so poorly written it's hard to be sure.

[caraher]

12. Well, the scientists aren't blameless

Who do you think decided to call it "teleportation?" Someone looking for a snazzy name for what they're doing...

I've been to too many physics talks on this subject involving a debate about whether it's "true" teleportation or merely "remote state preparation." You really need to look at what they did and what they measured, not the words they used to describe it.

[bananas]

16. The article uses the scientific terminology correctly.

And it gives a decent explanation of what it means.

[Kelvin Mace]

8. Not teleportation then

But, as Forbes explains, the actual object is not moving from point A to point B. Rather, the distant photon mirrors the information contained by the original photon, essentially becoming an identical twin.

If the actual object does not move, then it is not teleportation, any more than a sound echo is teleportation.

How is this hard for people to understand?

[drm604]

9. The Star Trek reference is just silly.

This is nothing like the Star Trek transporters and, as far as I can see, not even a step in that direction. They're "sending" (actually, duplicating) photons, which are not even matter, they're light.

This is about ultra-secure communications. It's about the possibility of sending information in a manner that is secure from even "man in the middle" attacks.

[Posteritatis]

13. Pretty sure science journalists(sic) have a list of standard references they have to make

Can't mention entanglement without invoking Star Trek, can't mention lasers without invoking Star Wars, can't mention genetics without invoking Brave New World...

[tanyev]

11. Big deal. I've got a cat that teleports herself anytime I drop something in the kitchen.

Effortlessly folds the time/space continuum and blasts herself through several different dimensions to her safe hiding place under the bed. Oh yeah, it's impressive.

[octothorpe]

14. I remember watching a documentary about this back in the 90's...

I think it was on TLC... Yes, TLC, when it still stood for The Learning Channel. They tried selling it at teleportation then too.

[unkachuck]

17. excellent!....but it still sounds like,"spooky action at a distance" to me....n/t