Quantum Teleportation Feat Brings Ultrafast Computer

Networks Step Closer To Reality

Hanson's team isn't alone in its quest to exploit quantum entanglement.
A paper describing the advance was published online May 29 in the journal Science.
"There is a big race going on between five or six groups to prove Einstein wrong," he told the Times.
"There is one very big fish."
No one's getting beamed up anytime soon, but teleportation may have taken a big step closer to
reality.
A quantum bit (qubit) is analogous to a conventional computer bit -- though unlike a conventional
bit, a qubit can represent more than two possible values.
The feat is considered a critical step toward the development of a network of so-called quantum
computers. These ultrafast computers -- still theoretical at this point -- would be able to solve
problems beyond the reach of even the most powerful computers available today, the New York
Times reported.
Researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands say they have succeeded in
accurately transferring information from one quantum bit to another quantum bit located 3 meters
away -- without the information traveling through the intervening space.
"If you believe we are nothing more than a collection of atoms strung together in a particular way,
then in principle it should be possible to teleport ourselves from one place to another," he told The
Telegraph. "In practice it's extremely unlikely, but to say it can never work is very dangerous."
But what about the idea of teleporting physical objects -- even humans -- rather than just
information?
In addition, quantum computers would allow data transfer to be completely secure, according to a
written statement released by the university. Eavesdropping on data would be virtually impossible.
"Entanglement is arguably the strangest and most intriguing consequence of the laws of quantum
mechanics," Prof. Ronald Hanson, head of the research effort, said in a written statement. "When
two particles become entangled, their identities merge: their collective state is precisely determined
but the individual identity of each of the particles has disappeared."
To achieve their feat, the researchers exploited quantum entanglement. That's a bizarre physics
phenomenon that Albert Einstein famously argued against because it amounted to "spooky action at
a distance" -- something he considered impossible.
If Star Trek-style teleportation does become possible, Hanson said, it will be in the distant future.
Take a seat, Scotty.