The Danube River is known for its beauty and has been immortalized in song. Now researchers have employed the water body as a testing ground for quantum teleportation. Scientists report today in the journal Nature that they have successfully teleported photons more than 600 meters across the famous waterway.

Rupert Ursin and his colleagues at the Institute for Experimental Physics in Vienna fired a laser through a barium borate crystal to generate two pairs of photons. One pair is entangled, which means that if something disturbs the state of one, the other feels the effects as well--even when they are not physically connected. By separating the entangled pair, the scientists successfully transported information about the state of one photon to the other. Using fiber-optic cable laid under the water in sewer pipes, together with microwaves sent across the air above the water, three distinct states were teleported across the Danube. Over the course of a 28-hour experimental run, the system was correct 97 percent of the time.

The results indicate that quantum teleportation is feasible over long distances and under real-world conditions, the scientists say. "Our result," they write, "is a step towards the implementation of a quantum repeater, which will enable pure entanglement to be shared between distant parties in a public environment and eventually on worldwide scale."

8 Comments

1. 1. Bromide 10:13 PM 3/10/09

   For thirty years Quantum Theory's tenure professors, to justify their salary, have been promising to do something useful with entanglement and prove that Einstein was wrong. Do anybody have a clue when this breakthrough is going to be achieved? My guess is that is going to be right after the Second Coming.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. quanta 03:14 PM 12/6/09

   i had wondered what old europe science was like

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. Roid 03:17 PM 2/12/10

   Shalhoub brings up some interesting applications. By taking advantage of quantum phenomena such as entanglement, teleportation and superposition, a quantum computer could, in principle, outperform a classical computer in certain computational tasks. Entanglement allows particles to have a much closer relationship than is possible in classical physics. For example, two photons can be entangled such that if one is horizontally polarized, the other is always vertically polarized, and vice versa, no matter how far apart they are. In quantum teleportation, complete information about the quantum state of a particle is instantaneously transferred by the sender, who is usually called Alice, to a receiver called Bob.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

4. 4. quanta 07:41 PM 2/12/10

   Could a machine containing entangled particles with
   their counterparts on earth be sent to the Kuiper belt
   or the Centuari system? Then there could be instant
   communication, data and telemetry, even across light-
   years.
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

5. 5. quanta 07:37 AM 2/13/10

   I should have provided this link re: 'the science of old europe'. Could not resist a little wisecrack, as may be understood if you read the last line of the 1st paragraph in this NYT article. Awesome vista of culture in a remote time in the same region.
   
   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01arch.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=old+europe&st=nyt
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

6. 6. jamesrealty@hotmail.com 01:54 PM 3/7/10

   I believe that are certain periameters used for time travel with
   the same unclassified 2004 airforce reports released this year.
   Also similarities in particleaccelertors used at the cern in switzerland and chicago at firmulab. Please let me know if I can
   be contacted for analytical assistance.
   James A. Valentine Executive Producer
   Galaxy Pictures Inc.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

7. 7. jack.123 10:23 AM 5/8/10

   Now that we know it can be done,again,lets remember it's just a high tech two slit experiment.I have described how to build a two slit telegraph in a number of comments concerning similar story's at this Scientific American web site.As for sending a machine to any where to communicate with,you must figure out a way to store the entangled particles,both here and at the other end.Then there's the timing of looking at the same photons on both ends at the same time,or we can send a laser beam to a location say a mirror we have placed in orbit where it is split then going to another two mirrors with one going to a target location say Mars.With the other beam coming back to Earth.Now if the distance between the splitting mirror is the same distance both Earth and Mars instant communication can now occur.Now I will describe how to communicate other planets without sending anything out there.For some time now we have been looking for Earth like planets around other suns.If there are others out there on planets going around other stars I am sure they are doing the same.If one is found sending a message could take many light years back and forth.But if we look for a star that is the same distance from us and them, once found.We could conduct a two slit experiment on that star light,looking for unnatural wave function drop caused by someone doing the same on the other end.Hidden in what someone might think is noise in the star light might be a message.We may have already been found by someone else, sending us a message waiting for us to respond.Once the connection is made it would be near instant communication over light years.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

8. 8. risdth 12:55 AM 7/1/10

   We are successfully transporting dynamic medicines of Homeopathy through the Hair taken from the patients. Hair is inserted in the selected medicine of Homeopathy and patients seated at far distance place receive and experiences the effects. For the last five decades this system is practiced with great success and had cured thousands of patients. Now many practitioners are also practicing it.
   For the transmission of medicine we follow the classical aspect of similimum of medicine selection procedure as well as follow-up. We have experienced that distance is no bar.Patient seated in different corner of world have experienced the effect. We are receiving patients from every corner and treatment is provided to them by transporting the medicine energy to them using hair as medium.
   It was started by Dr.B.Sahni, Bihar, India in early 1967 and now followed by many. Our Institute Research Institute of Sahni Drug Transmission and Homoeopathy, Shivpuri, Patna 800023, India was established since then has conducted experimentation and has been proved beyond doubts.
   One may recall the nature of Homeopathic medicines are dynamic and does not contain any single molecules of original medicines but has been practiced around the world ever since its inception by Dr.Hahnemann.
   Our we sites are www.wavemedicines.com and www.risdth.org

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this