Is Teleportation Possible?

For decades, humans have been infatuated with the idea of getting from A to B in a matter of milliseconds. From eliminating the stress of the morning school drop off to saying goodbye to the daily commute for good, teleportation is the stuff that modern day dreams are made of. But is it actually possible or is it just a pipedream? Read on as we explore the concept, and determine whether or not it could one day come to light.

Cutting edge science

If you’re dreaming of teleportation you could be in luck. Scientists are currently looking at ways to scan bodies right down to their subatomic level, annihilate the parts at point A and then rapidly send them to point B where a computer rebuilds in lighting fast time.  

From fantasy to reality?

Star Trek and The Fly fans will be well and truly familiar with the idea of teleportation. For years we saw Captain Kirk dash across the universe instantaneously but in 1993 teleportation finally made the transition from sci-fi to theoretical reality.  Physicist Charles Bennett and his team of IBM researchers revealed that quantum teleportation was possible, however only on the condition that the original object was destroyed and a duplicate created in its place.

Next generation experiments

Modern day researchers have accomplished all kinds of teleportation feats, with scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) successfully teleporting a photon back in 1998. Unfortunately, live specimens have proved to be a lot more difficult. Still, in 2002 scientists at the Australian National University successfully managed to teleport a laser beam while in 2006 Denmark's Niels Bohr Institute accomplished a similar exploit. In 2012 researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China made history when they teleported a photon 60.3 miles away from their lab!

Advancements are coming in hard and fast, which means eventually teleportation could be used to get humans from A to B. Of course, there’s still a long way to go before live specimen teleportation is achieved. No doubt particle characterisation will play an integral role in helping scientists master the art of teleportation. Interested in finding out more? In the article ‘Particle Characterisation with Dynamic Image Analysis Determination of particle size and particle shape with a new measuring technique’ researchers look at how Dynamic Image Analysis (DIA) is starting to emerge as an innovative alternative to sieve analysis and laser diffraction when measuring particles.

Image via Flickr Creative Commons. Source: Franco Dal Molin