It may not be the teleportation you saw in Star Trek, but researchers have sent information across a city via quantum entanglement.
Two separate teams of scientists have taken quantum teleportation from the lab into the real world.
Researchers working in Calgary, Canada and Hefei, China, used existing fiber optics networks to transmit small units of information across cities viaquantum entanglement — Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance.”
According to quantum mechanics, some objects, like photons or electrons, can be entangled. This means that no matter how far apart they are, what happens to one will affect the other instantaneously. To Einstein, this seemed ridiculous, because it entailed information moving faster than the speed of light, something he deemed impossible. But, numerous experiments have shown that entanglement does indeed exist. The challenge was putting it to use.Their breakthrough, published in two separate papers today in Nature Photonics, promises to offer important advancements for communications and encryption technologies....
Via Dr. Stefan Gruenwald
Something to talk about on your next coffee break. Star Trek may not be far off after all.