Earlier this month, scientists achieved the first instance of quantum teleportation.
“At long last researchers have teleported the information stored in a beam of light into a cloud of atoms, which is about as close to getting beamed up by Scotty as we’re likely to come in the foreseeable future.” (http://www.sciam.com/, 10/16/06)
What does this mean for technology? At the moment, it’s just a stepping stone in research, and toward acheiving optimal communication of data over great distances. I hold out hope, however, that human teleportation will eventually be a viable method of travel.
Read about it:
ScientificAmerican.com
Physorg.com
