Quantum teleportation, to space has finally been done ‘successfully.Which is super exciting, but it’s quantum — which means we didn’t teleport a thing per se, but some data. Basically, Chinese scientists beamed photons from the ground to a satellite orbiting above the Earth; then they messed with them using quantum entanglement Entanglement, we’ve talked about before, Einstein called it “spooky action at a distance.” And it happens when you have two particles — usually photons – that are created together.
They’re like twins, and their twinning can stretch across space and time – when the scientists observed the spin of the Earth-photons they could also know the spin of the photons in space too! They spin in the exact same way! Even though there’s no physical connection between the two, they’re just… mimicking each other. How? No one knows. It’s, Spooky. Action. They’re like telepathic twins in different cities. Like me and Mark Ruffalo. In this case, the Chinese satellite was capable of sensing the quantum state of the photons, so they could prove that the photons were entangled. Even across a vast distance! So think about this for a minute, right now, if I want to send a message I have to secure it with encryption. Like over secured radio waves. But, if we could make entangled phones… When my quantum particle moved, yours would move. If we can take advantage of that, we could communicate without any perceivable physical interaction! Of course, we’re totally not there yet.
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Quantum states are detectable, but, by the laws of quantum mechanics, once we observe a particle, it changes. The nice thing is, entanglement means we only have to observe one of the particles to sense the state of the other’s, but it’s not two-way data transfer… yet. So, we teleported information to space, which is a humongous accomplishment. But the practicality of is still up in the air. Quantum mechanics is still bound by the same laws of the universe as regular physics (in some ways). So we couldn’t use the particles as faster-than-light communication, but we could use them sort of like decoder rings. For example: If a spy has one of a twin set of entangled particles, and their contact has the other, alongside each is a coded message.
If they meet, observe their particles, and the spins match… They’d know no one had tampered with their messages. Ultimate security. Companies are already working on quantum entanglement as a security protocol for the future internet. Quantum entanglement could lead to moving data without wires or wireless frequencies. And, because anyone who somehow observed the entangled photons (i.e. spied on them) would alter them, security could be incredible. The problem is, quantum mechanics isn’t fully understood. This is very much like trying to create a whole new type of computer, without fully understanding how computer chips work. Or, like… building an airplane without fully understanding air molecules! Still, some Dutch researchers plan to start the first, rudimentary quantum computer network soon, and they’re not alone. It’s a huge engineering challenge. And it’s not impossible, but it’s hard. Success would most definitely change the world… A quantum internet could change our banking system, security would be way better, but you’d still need you balance your books.
