“Beam me up, Scotty.” It is the most famous phrase in science fiction. And when scientists announced they had successfully “teleported” a photon from the ground to a satellite in orbit, the world went wild. Are we about to start commuting by teleportation?
Not Matter, But Information
The short answer is no. Quantum Teleportation does not move matter. It moves quantum states. It destroys the state of a particle in one location and instantly recreates an identical state on a particle in another location, using the phenomenon of Quantum Entanglement.
The Unhackable Internet
While it wont save you a trip to the airport, this technology is revolutionary for the internet. It allows us to send information between two points without it ever traveling through the space in between. This means it cannot be intercepted. If someone tries to look at the data while its being teleported, the entanglement breaks and the message destroys itself.
This is the foundation of the future Quantum Internet—a network that is physically guaranteed to be secure by the laws of the universe.
Sources: NASA Science, Caltech News.
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