"Spooky" Science Points Towards Quantum Computing

Stony Stevenson writes to tell us that University of Michigan physicists have been able to establish an "entanglement" between two atoms trapped more than a meter apart in different enclosures using light. This shows how two different atoms can have a sort of communication, something Einstein referred to as 'spooky action-at-a-distance'. "By manipulating the photons emitted from each of the two atoms and guiding them to interact along a fibre-optic thread, the researchers were able to detect the resulting photon clicks and entangle the atoms. Professor Monroe explained that the fibre-optic thread was necessary to establish entanglement of the atoms. But the fibre could be severed and the two atoms would remain entangled, even if one were 'carefully taken to Jupiter'."

Comments

Re:Entanglement and causality?

[Anonymous Coward]

Your comment is difficult to parse. Please improve your arm-chair understand of English.

(Sorry, couldn't resist...)

Re:Entanglement and causality?

[morgan_greywolf]

The problem is that, as I understand it, this would happen ten minutes before I press the button. Whoops! You see, when I de-entangle the first electron the disentanglement on the other side happens five minutes in my past. When the machine disentangles the second electron, the other electron is five minutes in its past. Totalling to ten minutes. Can you see what I'm getting at? I'm assuming this argument isn't new - What mistake have I made here? I'm not sure, but I think you just invented time travel!

Re:Finally

[morgan_greywolf]

So, have you figured out yet why you're still single?

Re:FedEx, UPS, etc. are gonna make a fortune

[Anonymous Coward]

Every time somebody tracks a package online, there's a 50% chance that a cat somewhere dies.