http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,482264,00.html

Quote :

" Scientists have come a bit closer to achieving the "Star Trek" feat of teleportation. No one is galaxy-hopping, or even beaming people around, but for the first time, information has been teleported between two separate atoms across a distance of a meter — about a yard. This is a significant milestone in a field known as quantum information processing, said Christopher Monroe of the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, who led the effort. Teleportation is one of nature's most mysterious forms of transport: Quantum information, such as the spin of a particle or the polarization of a photon, is transferred from one place to another, without traveling through any physical medium. It has previously been achieved between photons (a unit, or quantum, of electromagnetic radiation, such as light) over very large distances, between photons and ensembles of atoms, and between two nearby atoms through the intermediary action of a third. None of those, however, provides a feasible means of holding and managing quantum information over long distances. Now the JQI team, along with colleagues at the University of Michigan, has succeeded in teleporting a quantum state directly from one atom to another over a meter. That capability is necessary for workable quantum information systems because they will require memory storage at both the sending and receiving ends of the transmission. In the Jan. 23 issue of the journal Science, the scientists report that, by using their protocol, atom-to-atom teleported information can be recovered with perfect accuracy about 90 percent of the time — and that figure can be improved. "Our system has the potential to form the basis for a large-scale 'quantum repeater' that can network quantum memories over vast distances," Monroe said. "Moreover, our methods can be used in conjunction with quantum bit operations to create a key component needed for quantum computation." A quantum computer could perform certain tasks, such as encryption-related calculations and searches of giant databases, considerably faster than conventional machines. The effort to devise a working model is a matter of intense interest worldwide. "

there is more the article, its pretty long but interesting.

2/6/2009 2:53:28 PM

Quote :

"teleporting a quantum state directly from one atom to another"

what does that mean? sounds like they just made one atom match the other, not teleport one 3 ft over.

2/6/2009 2:59:03 PM

maybe we should ask qntmfred?

2/6/2009 3:02:47 PM

It's a stretch to call this teleportation. It has long been known that 2 separate atoms can communicate instantaneously, and if you measure the state of 1 then you automatically know the state of the other. I forget the term in quantum physics, but I learned it back in high school.

Quote :

"In the Jan. 23 issue of the journal Science, the scientists report that, by using their protocol, atom-to-atom teleported information can be recovered with perfect accuracy about 90 percent of the time — and that figure can be improved."

60% of the time, it works every time.

2/6/2009 3:07:01 PM

If I ever see something threadworthy on geekologie, I usually just say fuck it. gunzz probably beat me to it already.

2/6/2009 3:07:04 PM

^^ it's called quantum entanglement

see http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=quantum-teleportation-with-ions for more scientifically "detailed" summary

2/6/2009 3:07:56 PM

"Fox News"

2/6/2009 3:18:30 PM

you know, rome wasn't built in a day.

its pretty cool they are researching this though. teleportation has been something i've always been interested in becoming a reality.

hey look at it this way, if they have it at a good success rate with non-biological objects.... it would put fed-ex and ups out of business.

2/6/2009 3:33:52 PM

this type of research has practical implications for quantum computing, not macroscopic teleportation.

[Edited on February 6, 2009 at 3:39 PM. Reason : though i empathize with your scientifically romantic point of view]

2/6/2009 3:37:52 PM

Awesome

2/6/2009 3:42:01 PM

there's no way you could convince me to teleport somewhere, even if it was totally safe.

i'm pretty convinced you'd run into a swamp man situation, only it'd be too late.

2/6/2009 3:55:50 PM

Fascinating. Although, I have to admit, as I read the article further and further, my head cocked to the side more and more until I looked like a confused puppy (minus the adorable factor).

2/7/2009 12:05:25 PM

Quote :

"if they have it at a good success rate with non-biological objects.... it would put fed-ex and ups out of business."

or the opposite, most people probably wouldnt be able to affort it and ups/fedex would save on shipping costs

2/8/2009 2:47:08 PM

I'm not sure I could ever trust teleportation if it existed to use it. Basically you'd be killing yourself and then some other form of yourself would be reassembled. No thanks.

However if I could order chicken wings or whatever food I was craving and have it teleported to my house, sign me up.

[Edited on February 8, 2009 at 5:12 PM. Reason : -]

2/8/2009 5:11:05 PM

Quote :

"across a distance of a meter — about a yard."

whew thx for clearing that up

2/8/2009 5:34:44 PM

i thought i read in discover magazine about this being accomplished a couple years ago...

2/9/2009 8:41:44 AM

^^^ That's what the replicator is for. No need to transport anything

2/9/2009 9:27:10 AM

^^

Quote :

"It has previously been achieved between photons (a unit, or quantum, of electromagnetic radiation, such as light) over very large distances, between photons and ensembles of atoms, and between two nearby atoms through the intermediary action of a third."

what's new about this is it is atom to atom transfer

2/9/2009 10:10:42 AM

Quote :

"i thought i read in discover magazine about this being accomplished a couple years ago..."

you probably read about this: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=quantum-teleportation-acr (yeah, that ^)

Quote :

"That's what the replicator is for. No need to transport anything"

yeah...when you consider that the VAST majority of organic matter is made up of CHON (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen...phosphorus could probably be thrown in there, too), the idea that you could just replicate something based on its molecular recipe (hah) seems pretty cool...i know it's much more difficult than simply getting cartridges of CHON and just throwing the components together, but still

the heechee saga by frederik pohl talks about this...i think (i'd have to check...it's been probably 15 years since i read it)

[Edited on February 9, 2009 at 10:22 AM. Reason : beat me to it ]

2/9/2009 10:17:27 AM