Oh crap, I wore my red shirt.
I’ll just have to take the risk.
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 – like me
and Mark Ruffalo.
Because they were entangled, 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.
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.
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And Crystal, here, can tell you about how quantum computing actually could work!
Click it!
One last fun fact: In this Chinese experiment, the team sent millions of photons to their
satellite to measure them, but the sat only caught 911.
So, again, it’s a tough way to send information, but not impossible