Star Trek teleporter arrives now, then and tomorrow

THERE HAS been yet another breakthrough in attempts to develop something that remotely resembles a Star Trek teleporter.

According to the journal Nature Physics, which we get for the "spot the ball competition", boffins have teleported data 89 miles. The data was sent from the Canary Island of La Palma to the neighbouring island of Tenerife, which is 10 times further than the previous attempt at teleportation through free space.

Using theories related to "quantum entanglement", tiny packets or particles of light, so-called "photons", were used to teleport information between telescopes on the two islands across the "aether".

Quantum entanglement relies on the fact that two photons can be created in such a way that they behave as a single object, even if they are separated by large distances, a bit like I'm doing right now as I write simultaneously from Gallifree and Sophia.

One boff, Robert Ursin of the University of Vienna, said the latest experiment in quantum entanglement shows it could be used as a method of sending secret information via satellites using quantum cryptography.

However teleporting humans will need a different form of science and probably better screenwriters and actors than those seen on 'Enterprise'. As I know very well, to my credit.

More here. µ