Was Einstein wrong? Scientists successfully achieve quantum teleportation for the first time

A professor says that laws of physics do not prevent the teleportation of large objects, including humans.

16:46 30 May 2014

A professor who led a landmark teleportation experiment has said that Star Trek-style “beaming” up of people through space could become a reality sometime in the far future. 

 

Professor Ronald Hanson said that nothing in the laws of physics prevents the teleportation of large objects, including humans. In fact, he said that it is physically possible for anything to travel faster than light. 

 

Prof Hanson, from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, said: "If you believe we are nothing more than a collection of atoms strung together in a particular way, then in principle it should be possible to teleport ourselves from one place to another. 

 

"In practice it's extremely unlikely, but to say it can never work is very dangerous. 

 

"I would not rule it out because there's no fundamental law of physics preventing it. 

 

"If it ever does happen it will be far in the future."

 

Hanson's team was celebrating after managing to teleport information embedded into sub-atomic particles between two points three metres apart. For the first time ever, the experiment was a 100% success. 

 

Hanson went on: "The main application of quantum teleportation is a quantum version of the internet, extending a global network that we can use to send quantum information. 

 

"We have shown that it's possible to do this, and it works every time that you try. 

 

"It provides the first building block of the future quantum internet. 

 

"One application nearest to a real life application is secure communication. 

 

"What you're doing is using entanglement as your communication channel. 

 

"The information is teleported to the other side, and there's no way anyone can intercept that information. 

 

"In principle it's 100 per cent secure."