Quantum Teleportation Sends Information 143 Kilometers

SchrodingerZ writes "Scientists from around the world have collaborated to achieve quantum teleportation over 143 kilometers in free space. Quantum information was sent between the Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife. Quantum teleportation is not how it is made out in Star Trek, though. Instead of sending an object (in this case a photon) from one location to another; the information of its quantum state is sent, making a photon on the other end look identical to the original. 'Teleportation across 143 kilometres is a crucial milestone in this research, since that is roughly the minimum distance between the ground and orbiting satellites.' It is the hope of the research team that this experiment will lead to commercial use of quantum teleportation to interact with satellites and ground stations. This will increase the efficiency of satellite communication and help with the expansion of quantum internet usage. The full paper on the experiment can be found [note: abstract only, full article paywalled] in the journal Nature."

Comments

Re:Why the Canaries of all places?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's to provide early warning in the event of a quantum accident - you know something went wrong when the Canaries are both alive and dead.

Re:ping times

[Dunbal]

Your 1ms ping time will be in compensation for your 80% packet loss.

HOLY SHIT IT'S THE REPLICATOR!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Quantum teleportation is not how it is made out in Star Trek though. Instead of sending an object (in this case a photon) from one location to another; the information of its quantum state is sent, making a photon on the other end look identical to the original."

So since matter is energy, if you can make the quantum state of object A identical to object B, IT'S THE REPLICATOR FROM STAR TREK ZOMFG I WANNA CHEESEBURGER

Re:If I recall.....

[ciderbrew]

Got a wiki page. It may well be the worst layman's explanation ever :) they got "no-communication" of that theorem just right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-communication_theorem

Re:If I recall.....

[binarylarry]

It doesn't, that's why you need Scotty to build you a quantum singularity, which allows you to engage the warp nacelles and initiate FTL by sling shotting the message around venus.

Seriously, read a book or something.

Re:If I recall.....

[Greyfox]

No! Quantum entanglement is more like herpes! Lets say I give you herpes! Now we share the herpes state. Later on the next person you want to have sex with checks and sees you have the herpes state. They can therefore logically infer that I also have herpes, since you claim you didn't have herpes before and I was the only person you can in contact with in between. They can arrive at this conclusion no matter where in the world I am.

Quantum teleportation is like me calling you on the phone and giving you herpes that way. There still has to be some contact, but in this case it's phone herpes.

So while Voyager could still use this technology to communicate, it would still have to make that phone call and wait 17 hours for the light to travel to Earth.

Re:If I recall.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Remote receiver: I wonder if I have a q-mail. Let me just check if the wavefunction has collapsed yet. Oh wait, I just measured it so it collapsed. QED.

Re:If I recall.....

[LordLimecat]

and a Nobel Prize for whoever figured it out.

I thought you had to do something political to get one of those.