Overview
Teleportation, or using the transporter, is a wonderful method of transportation in science fiction and fantasy. Wouldn’t it be great to avoid traffic jams and complicated connections by whisking one’s atoms from one place to another? According to quantum theory and the Uncertainty Principle, it may not be possible yet on a large scale. However, scientists have succeeded in transporting single atoms from one place to another on a small scale.
Teleportation
The theory of teleportation is well known to science fiction fans. For example, in the Star Trek universe, Starfleet personnel as well as beings from alien nations materialize and dematerialize on planets, between decks, and other starships. They dematerialize in one place and materialize in another, “beamed up” out of harm’s way. The concept of atoms being scrambled and their information reassembled in another place gave rise to many plot points. For example, Dr. McCoy, Dr. Pulaski, and Lt. Barclay disliked transporters so much that it led to running jokes about their safety and reliability.
Quantum Waves
The electrons within an atom jump levels and reappear in different places all the time according to quantum theory. The movement of electrons, so they are shared between atoms, is the basis for chemical bonds. It makes different compounds possible. It also means that particles behave very erratically, so that light is sometimes a wave and sometimes a particle.
Quantum Entanglement
Albert Einstein and two of his colleagues proposed in 1935 that one of the consequences of quantum theory is that if two electrons are originally vibrating together, they will still be entangled even if they are separated by vast distances. If one electron spins up, the other one will spin down, and vice versa. Entanglement has since been shown experimentally, with photons as well as atoms, since the technology exists to measure the relationships of subatomic particles to one another.
Quantum Computers and Beyond
At the quantum level, scientists have been able to teleport the information from one atom to another, using the principle of entanglement. Other physicists have been able to exploit other properties of quantum states. Traditional digital computers are based on a binary system of 0 and 1, but quantum computers could be developed to use all values between 0 and 1. The explosion of information storage possible might lead to development of systems powerful enough to coordinate complex functions beyond what is possible now. Perhaps in a distant future, teleportation might be a possibility.
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