Beam Me Up Aussie
By Anne Pawsey
Don’t you dream of the day when getting to work is simply a question of “beam me up Scotty”? Sadly teleportation is still more Star Trek than science lab. But this maybe about to change.Scientists from the University of Queensland’s Australian Research Centre for Quantum Atom Optics have devised a new way to teleport atoms without involving quantum entanglement.
Entanglement is a weird phenomenon christened “spooky action at a distance” by Einstein which has previously been used to teleport atoms.
This method doesn’t work brilliantly though because some bits of the atom get confused on the way and don’t quite make it in the correct form; it would be a bit disturbing if your trousers turned into a skirt on the way to work.
|
))
At these temperatures the atoms of the substance you want to move all act in exactly the same way so the substance behaves as if it was one big atom rather than a collection of individual particles.
This is where it gets cunning; if you shine a laser at the condensate and then fire a bunch of atoms at it you can get the condensate to emit photons (light).
Since the condensate behaves like one big atom all the photons are emitted in the same direction and form a signal beam.
By fiddling around with the laser and the condensate the scientists can make this beam carry all the information about the atoms which were fired at the condensate in the first place.
If this beam is then focused on a new bit of Bose-Einstein condensate, complete with its own laser, it is forced to kick out atoms which are identical to the original ones which would mean they have effectively been teleported.
All this is currently at the theoretical stage but the scientists hope that it can be carried out in practice in the near future, though teleporting to work still seems a long way off.
Visit Anne for more physics fun or follow the links below:
- Bizarre - You weigh less in Canada
- Cool - Tractor beam technology is demon
- Interesting - GPS shoes go on trial
- Weird - Coffee shop staff use ultrasound
Image: James Montgomery Doohan
Share this
