Cover of A Wrinkle in Time

Teleportation has long been seen as a staple of science fiction. From Star Trek’s famous “Beam us up, Scotty,” to books such as Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time teleporting has been explained in countless ways and shows up again and again in works of fiction; however, teleportation might soon be a part of our everyday lives.

The theory of Quantum Entanglement is very complicated and still has many unanswered questions surrounding it, but the simple gist of it is that two particles of light are “entangled” and when one changes charge, the other changes charge at the same time. Measuring these changes in charge, scientists can transfer information instantly, getting around the Light Speed Barrier. A team in China recently successfully transferred information using this method over a distance of 16 kilometers (just under 10 miles), about 20 times as far as had previously been completed. This has led many scientists to look at the future of Quantum Entanglement Teleportation using satellites to send information around the world.

Communications sent with Quantum Entanglement Teleportation would not be any faster than traditional, since the information must be deciphered with a code that arrives in traditional ways; however, QET has a big advantage over traditional forms of communication: Protection. Since information would be teleporting with QET, communications could not be intercepted.

Quantum Entanglement Teleportation is just getting off the ground, but the possibilities are astounding. The recent breakthroughs have even gotten some Scientists and Engineers to asking if it might soon be possible to teleport matter, even people, in a similar fashion.