back to article Entangled matter the next big thing in qubits

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute are trumpeting as a breakthrough the successful teleportation of quantum information over 21 metres. To be fair, however, the record they're claiming to have set is for “matter-matter teleportation” – rather than merely carrying a quantum state such as polarisation between a pair of …

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  1. mIRCat
    Paris Hilton

    "Researchers at the Max Planck Institute are trumpeting as a breakthrough the successful teleportation of quantum information over a whole 21 centimetres."

    I remember when I could get my girlfriend exited over half of that. Boffins are such size queens.

    Paris. The queen of size queens.

  2. Winkypop Silver badge
    Windows

    Wow!

    I didn't understand any of that.

    1. Michael Dunn
      Unhappy

      Re: Wow!

      Me too! I haven't the foggiest idea of what they are talking about!

      They ought to give politicians position papers like this to read - it might keep them out of mischief.

  3. Steve I
    Paris Hilton

    They what-whatted a what-what?

    1. Montreal Sean

      They transported Q-Bert 8"?

      I can see how that would prevent those little beasties from catching him, but I don't see how that would help him light up all the diamond shaped pads...

  4. eBusiness
    Holmes

    Beam me up, Scotty

    Is it just me, or has there been some inflation to the term teleportation?

    1. TheOtherHobbes

      Re: Beam me up, Scotty

      Don't panic - it's just spin.

  5. frank ly

    Practical application...

    Is it possible to change the spin state of one of the trapped atoms and have that spin state 'teleported' over the the other atom? How are the atoms made to be entangled in the first place?

    Do the photons used to 'read' the state of the atoms have to be entangled with each other, with each atom, or both?

    I hope that one of the resident deep-physics commentards can shed photons on this for us.

  6. Schultz

    Teleport matter?

    But it sounds like they teleported the spin state of an atom, not the atom itself.

    Does it matter? I guess it depends on what you mean by 'matter'.

    1. Neil B
      Thumb Up

      Re: Teleport matter?

      Headsplode.

  7. Measurer
    WTF?

    If....

    You teleport the properties of an atom to another (e.g. spin), do you teleport the thing itself???

    1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: If....

      I have two atoms (A1 and A2) in two positions (P1 and P2). You get to "image" the scene in any way you like. I then flip a coin. If it comes up "heads", I physically swap the atoms over; if it's "tails", I leave them as they are. You then get to re image. How do you tell whether my coin came up heads?

      1. magrathea

        Re: If....

        I take a look at the coin :)

        It reminds me of an old Steve Wright joke about a man who wakes up to find his apartment and everything in it has been replaced by exactly identical replicas

        1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

          Re: If....

          Or the broom that's had two new heads and three new handles.

          But what's a good joke at the macroscopic level is reality at the quantum level. Atoms are defined by their quantum numbers, and to teleport the state is to teleport the atom - there is no other way to label an atom. It's only when you get large clumps of atoms that it becomes possible to identify "this one" and "that one".

  8. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Er?

    Did someone teleport half the article out of the CMS? The understandable half?

  9. Dr Patrick J R Harkin
    Alien

    "We have a wonderful new teleportation device which can transmit 0.1% of your atoms! Wanna have a go?"

    Why am I thinking this is more Galaxy Quest than Star Trek?

  10. Rol

    It's worse than that, it's spin Jim

    From the very moment I heard about quantum entanglement of particles and Bosun pairs, I conceived a future of clean always on energy.

    If the articles were to be believed, that Star Trek like teleportation was achievable, although at only the minuscule level of particles, then pouncing on the idea electrical energy could be transmitted in a similar way, from say a Sun orbiting array of solar panels to the "battery" in my electric car, would be well within the parameters of this weirdness.

    Although, like all seemingly fantastic news, it's nothing other than spin.

  11. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Joke

    Let me get this straight

    A 0.1% improvement yielding 100,000 times better performance is worth a paper ?

    Honey ? You know my drinking habit ? Well I just reduced my consumption by 0.1% !

    <thwack!> Ow ! Why aren't you happy ? <bash!> Ouch ! But this is scientific progress ! <boink!> Ahh! (etc...)

  12. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    "teleportation"

    Reminds me of the sci-fi plot, thus:

    Once upon a time, there was a unique Teleporter machine malfunction, client tries again, and it works the second time.

    Client found himself in the distant city as planned, but then he eventually noticed that he was about 30 seconds (or 10m) behind another copy of himself. Catches up and meets himself. Oh dear...

    At the inevitable Senate inquiry, the Teleported company acknowledged that the piston had jammed.

    Piston...?

    Yeah. The giant piston in the ceiling of the teleporter machine. It's the piston that jams the original client through the grated floor into the blender.

    Blender...?

    Yeah, once the client has been copied to the new location, we crush the original.

    Crush the original...?

    Yeah, that's why the Teleportation Booth is heavily soundproofed. It can get pretty noisy.

    ...etc. ...

  13. Michael Dunn
    Joke

    Eh?

    Does a Ph D in quantum physics now make you a spin doctor?

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