On May 29th 2014, physicists at Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, which is part of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, announced that they had sent quantum information concerning the spin state of an electron to another electron that was about 10 feet away. Quantum teleportation has been reported before. In fact I posted a blog on results of experiments done by physicists in Australia in September 2013.
In this particular experiment, the results of the study have a replication rate of 100% at the above distance. This was made possible by means of what is known as entanglement. This is a quantum state in which two or more particles can simultaneously communicate their attributes to each other, even when they are separated by vast distances.
The information or data that was teleported in this experiment was not that of a classical sense, such as ones and zeros. The physicists at Delft University had to use quantum bits, or what's known as qubits, which can simultaneously describe a number of values.
In their experiment, the physicists trapped electrons in diamonds at very low temperatures, separated at about 10 feet apart. When the spin of an electron was taken in one location, the physicists observed that the same was true of the corresponding electron that was 10 feet away.
While this is not what one would expect wen you hear the word teleportation, such as being beamed up to the Enterprise as they do on Star Trek, is a very important step in the development of high speed communications. There are five or six groups that are in a race to catch that elusive "big one," and perhaps win a Nobel prize as well.
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