December 29, 1997 | 2 comments

"Beam Me Up"

An experiment confirms that teleportation is possible--at least for photons

Teleportation still has one glitch: In the fuzzy realm of quantum mechanics, the result of the transfer is influenced by the receiver's observation of it. (As soon as you look at, say, Bones, he will look like something else.) So someone still has to tell the receiver that the transformation has been made so that they can correctly interpret what they see. And this sort of communication cannot occur at faster-than-light speeds. Even so, the scheme has definite applications in ultrafast quantum computers and in utilizing quantum phenomena to ensure secure data transmission [see QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY, Charles H. Bennett, Scientific American, October 1992].

For now, though, it will be a long time before a real Scotty beams up a living Captain Kirk.

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