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Here A Beam, There A Beam

Physicists at the California Institute of Technology recently succeeded in transporting a quantum state of light from one side of an optical bench to the other without it traveling through any physical medium in between. They did not physically transport the beam itself, but transmitted its properties to another location where the information was used to re-create an exact quantum copy of the original beam. The process, known as "teleportation," is similar to sending a document through a fax machine, with three important differences: it works on three-dimensional objects as well as documents; it produces an exact copy of the original at the other end, not just a facsimile; and the original object is destroyed in the scanning process. Quantum teleportation allows information to be transmitted at the speed of light. Futuristic quantum computers may someday move information about in this way without the need for wires and silicon chips.

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