Beam Me Up, Scotty: Scientists Theorize Star Trek-Like Teleportation
Scientists at the University of Cambridge, the University of Gdansk, and the University College London say they have developed a new protocol for more efficient and complex teleportation.
Teleportation, a term that describes the instant transport of across space and distance, or, more narrowly, the transport of quantum information at the speed of light, has been known in theory at least since 1993 and is known today to exist as a feature in our universe. It can even be replicated as Chinese researchers claimed to have teleported photons over a distance of 88 miles last year, but our technology is limited to teleporting information to single atoms and anything more complex is still science fiction.
However, new project work, albeit completely theoretical in nature, describes a generalized form of teleportation in quantum physics, which foresees gateways of teleportation that support more than just one atom. The basic understanding of teleportation considers an entangled pair of quantum particles that always retain synchronized information, no matter how great the physical distance between them.
"Previous teleportation protocols, have fallen into one of two camps, those that could only send scrambled information requiring correction by the receiver, or more recently, port-based teleportation that doesn't require a correction, but needed an impractical amount of entanglement – each object sent would destroy the entangled state," the researchers said. In their theory, however, the entangled state can be recycled in a way so that the gateway between particles supports the teleportation of multiple objects. Their protocol suggests that quantum particles can be teleported simultaneously, but the entangled state degrades proportionally to the amount of quantum particles sent.
Sergii Strelchuk from the University of Cambridge said that "entanglement can be thought of as the fuel, which powers teleportation." Their new protocol is considered to be "more fuel efficient" and "able to use entanglement thriftily while eliminating the need for error correction".
Space travel in an instant is still a dream far away. But it surely is fascinating to learn about research that may enable teleportation in the future.
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A Bad Day It would be more realistic to shoot for the true-instant communication than to try to teleport a human...Reply -
edogawa I don't know much about this type of stuff, but wouldn't teleportation technically kill you and just rebuild you atom by atom somewhere else?Reply -
sickofthis00 edogawaI don't know much about this type of stuff, but wouldn't teleportation technically kill you and just rebuild you atom by atom somewhere else?Reply
ya thats what Sheldon said -
ben850 edogawaI don't know much about this type of stuff, but wouldn't teleportation technically kill you and just rebuild you atom by atom somewhere else?Reply
So they say. Hopefully they come out with the technology to transfer consciousness before they ever start human trials! -
catswold edogawaI don't know much about this type of stuff, but wouldn't teleportation technically kill you and just rebuild you atom by atom somewhere else?Exactly. You are destroyed and (hopefully) reproduced at your destination . . . not certain how much I like the idea.Reply
I'm with Bones on this one--"hav my atoms scattered back and forth through space." -
Pgooch bombebombWill this make Next Day Air shipping cheaper?Reply
Thats what i was thinking 1 day turn into 15 minute shipping
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edogawa bombebombWill this make Next Day Air shipping cheaper?Reply
Mmm, that would make so many people in the transporation business lose their jobs. -
BUS DRIVERS LIKE THOSE IN MONTREAL AND THEIR RUDE ATTITUDES PROLLY DESERVE TO LOSE THIER JOBS. I WOULD RATHER TELEPORT THAN EVER TAKE PUBLIC TRANSIT OR A CAR AGAINReply