Skim the text and choose its main ideaA team of scientists managed to teleport
information across several kilometres of optical fibre network in two cities.
This form of teleportation differs from that depicted in Star Trek: it involves
transferring quantum states of a light particle, not Starfleet officers. But
the method offers huge promise. Teleportation over long distances and across
optical fibre networks is an important step towards the ultra-secure
communications promised by quantum cryptography. And the set-up described in
studies published in Nature Photonics journal could be seen as a building block for
a future "quantum internet". In
the paper, Dr Wolfgang Tittel and colleagues describe how they
teleported the quantum state of a photon, or light particle, over 8.2km in the
Canadian city of Calgary. The process by which information - the quantum state
of a photon - is teleported involves creating two photons at the University of
Calgary. One of these photons is sent in a "classical" way along
11.1km of optical fibre to a building near Calgary City Hall, while the other
remains behind at the university. Meanwhile, a photon is also sent to the City
Hall. This all results in the quantum state of the photon from site A being
transferred to the photon which remained behind at the university (site B)
through quantum teleportation. This teleportation process occurs via a
phenomenon known as entanglement, which describes how sub-atomic particles can
be linked even if they are separated by a large distance. The details of
entanglement are not well understood; it even befuddled Einstein, who famously
described it as "spooky action at a distance".