Scientists Take Quantum Steps Toward Teleportation

npr.org ^ | August 1, 2010 | NPR Staff

[Free ThinkerNY]

"Quantum entanglement" may sound like an awful sci-fi romance flick, but it's actually a phenomenon that physicists say may someday lead to the ability to teleport an object all the way across the galaxy instantly.

It's not exactly the Star Trek version of teleportation, where an object disappears then reappears somewhere else. Rather, it "entangles" two different atoms so that one atom inherits the properties of another.

"According to the quantum theory, everything vibrates," theoretical physicist Michio Kaku tells NPR's Guy Raz. Kaku is a frequent guest on the Science and Discovery channels. "When two electrons are placed close together, they vibrate in unison. When you separate them, that's when all the fireworks start."

This is where quantum entanglement — sometimes described as "teleportation" — begins. "An invisible umbilical cord emerges connecting these two electrons. And you can separate them by as much as a galaxy if you want. Then, if you vibrate one of them, somehow on the other end of the galaxy the other electron knows that its partner is being jiggled."

This process happens even faster than the speed of light, physicists say.

Quantum entanglement isn't a new idea — Einstein once famously referred to it as "spooky action at a distance" — but it wasn't until the past 30 years that scientists were first able to observe this process.

It could one day lead to new types of computers, and some even think entanglement may explain things like telepathy. Scientists aren't quite ready to beam up Scotty yet, but this is the technology that one day may lead to such a feat.

[TigersEye]

Wait a minute! Does that mean that the speed of light is not a constant?

I think the speed of light already has exceptions but this has nothing to do with light traveling anywhere so it is a non-sequitur to say this affects its speed.

[Deagle]

Haven’t you figured it out yet? Almost everything that we know today is going to change tomorrow? There is no such things as facts in science.. It is just a matter of time until things change - usually for the better...

I just wish that I could live long enough to see those changes...

[Deagle]

Yes... until someone proves different. Don’t you see the conflict? Science is a moving thing and will continue to be so until the end...

[TigersEye]

I figured out that you confused light travel with electron vibration which is like conflating radio waves with ocean waves.

[Deagle]

Nice try... but since nothing can travel faster than light...what say you? Silly statement on your part...

[TigersEye]

No one says that nothing can travel faster than light. Your premise is BS.

[GOPJ]

So they don’t actually teleport - they ‘create’ at the end of the vibrations’ cord?

[Mike Darancette]

"Quantum entanglement" may sound like an awful sci-fi romance flick, but it's actually a phenomenon that physicists say may someday lead to the ability to teleport an object all the way across the galaxy instantly.

Wouldn't that be time travel?

[aruanan]

"Quantum entanglement" may sound like an awful sci-fi romance flick, but it's actually a phenomenon that physicists say may someday lead to the ability to teleport an object all the way across the galaxy instantly.

Wouldn't that be time travel?

No.

[Grizzled Bear]

If you think your partner is being jiggled, you may have trust issues.

[Captain Beyond]

String Theory Physics ping

[Captain Beyond]

I love the Half-Life games. Freaking awesome fun. The Crowbar the ultimate weapon. 8-)

[Rome2000]

I play TF2-Lotus Clan Server

[Bratch]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Captain Beyond! Of course, if they succeed, no one will ever see them again, so...

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[samtheman]

Really? There might be a explanation for the everyday, common occurrence of telepathy?

Yes, they are idiots, and we are paying their salaries.

[SuperLuminal]

"I teleport alone, yeah with nobody else."

Hmmmm! Can't too much of that make you blind?

[Yo-Yo]

Not much of a George Thorogood fan, are you.

[SuperLuminal]

"Not much of a George Thorogood fan, are you.

Dang! Missed that completely...{:-)

Guess my 76-year-old brain is just plain bad to the bone...

[E8crossE8]

In the referenced article, the authorship of which was attributed to unnamed "NPR staff," there appears the following passage:

"...and some even think entanglement may explain things like telepathy."

A couple of posters have noticed this passage, and used it as the basis for a condemnation of the professional scientists working in this area, going so far as to imply that those scientists are "idiots."

I want to point out that this absurd passage in the article doesn't actually quote any trained, professional physicist who actually earns a living by working in the field of Quantum Information Science (nor does it quote any professional scientist of any kind for this passage). In fact, this passage doesn't quote anyone at all. There is probably a very good reason for that: I suspect that "NPR staff" made it up (because they believe it), and that "NPR staff" did not hear any working physicist utter this inane, meaningless comment. I have never in my entire career heard a single one of my fellow physicists ever make such a statement about "telepathy," whatever telepathy is, assuming it is even a real phenomenon, which I doubt. The topic of the article, quantum teleportation, is an actual physical phenomenon that has been independently reproduced in a number of physics laboratories around the world over the last few years, and has nothing whatsoever to do with so-called "psychic phenomena." This work is real physics, and has nothing whatsoever to do with "telepathy," for which there is currently no scientific evidence available.

(Incidentally, although this phenomenon, to which we have given the name "quantum teleportation," has indeed been demonstrated in a few laboratories (beginning with demonstrations at the University of Innsbruck and at Caltech in the late 1990s), one shouldn't fall into the trap of associating this with what appears on Star Trek. The experimental demonstrations that have been performed (for which, by the way, there is a mathematically rigorous, theoretical basis) have involved "teleporting" small numbers of elementary particles under carefully controlled conditions. We are a very long way away from doing anything remotely like what appears on Star Trek.)