A-Z Blogging Challenge: T Stands For: Teleportation

Teleportation usually comes across as a science fiction mechanism of traveling interstellar distances instantaneously, between planets, from ships, to bases, and etc. But while it isn't as grand or as immediately obvious as a person being teleported across space, quantum teleportation (a bit different from transfer of actual matter) has been done by scientists.

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Quantum teleportation, also called entanglement-assisted teleportation, is when a unit of quantum information or "qubit" is transmitted from one place to another, without that qubit crossing the space between the two points. It doesn't physically transport any matter or information, and no particles are reassembled at the second location.

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Scientists are capable of doing this because of quantum entanglement, which is when particles are linked to each other even when physically separated, share a single quantum state, and remain in quantum superposition (the idea the particles can be two things at the same time--this links to the idea of Schroedinger's cat of being both alive and dead) until a measurement is taken. Because the particles are entangled, and in two states at once, in theory the measurement of one would immediately affect the other, faster than the speed of light. Albert Einstein called this "spooky action at a distance".

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Some uses for this technology? Quantum teleportation could be used for communications. It could allow transmission of large amounts of information, speed up quantum computation, and perform tasks impossible for classical systems.

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Sources:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1874760,00.html
http://www.livescience.com/7647-teleportation-milestone-achieved.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleportation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_teleportation
http://www.jqi.umd.edu/news/211-entanglement-with-frequency-combs.html
http://www.research.ibm.com/physicsofinfo/members/teleportation.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-entangle/#2
http://www.quantum.at/research/quantum-teleportation-communication-entanglement/first-quantum-teleportation.html
http://www.quantiki.org/wiki/Quantum_communication

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Do you think we'll be using quantum technology in the relatively near future? Do you think teleportation will ever reach the point where people, or even just macroscopic objects, could be transported from one place to the other?

And please, PLEASE don't quote Star Trek. I've read enough articles researching this post with the phrase stuck in there somewhere. :P

-----The Golden Eagle

The Man Who Invented Word Verification

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA scienceNOW.

Since you might not be able to watch the video, here's what it's all about:

Luis von Ahn wanted to know what he could do with 100 million people.

When he and his advisor were approached by Yahoo! with a spam problem in email--spammers were acquiring email addresses to send junk into people's inboxes--Von Ahn invented CAPTCHA, which humans can distinguish but computers cannot. (In theory. :P I've had trouble with CAPTCHA several times.)

But it takes time to type those words, and when 200 million people are spending it, it's a lot of seconds. So Luis von Ahn teamed up with a project to put thousands of books onto the Internet, and created something called reCAPTCHA, which places a known CAPTCHA word next to one that the computer does not know--and which comes from one of those books. On average, 120-150 books per day can be typed up thanks to the anti-spam program.

And it's not just books. It's also the entire archive of The New York Times.

So you, in theory, are actually helping to puzzle out hundreds of books when you type CAPTCHA to create accounts, get through computer programs and yes, you got it, comment.


-----The Golden Eagle

The X Prize

10 million bucks+Very Light Car+102mpg+Wave2+187mpg+E-Tracer+205mpg=the X Prize.

The Very Light Car created by the Edison2 team got the Mainstream Class award, or 5 million dollars. The miles per gallon is 102, and it only weighs 830 pounds. To learn more about the team go HERE.

The Wave2 created by Li-ion Motors received 2.5 million dollars. The miles per gallon is 187.

The E-Tracer created by X-Tracer also received 2.5 million dollars. The miles you can go on one charge is (whew!) 250.

I'm not a "car person". In fact, I really don't like engines, hate fussing with anything beyond the seats, and don't tend to get fond of vehicles in general. But there is something cool about energy-efficient, innovative cars, don't you think?

More links:

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• Super-Light, 100 MPG Car Takes $5M X Prize (greenbiz.com)
• Automotive X-Prize: Li-Ion Motors Wave II wins Alternative Side-by-Side Class (green.autoblog.com)
• X-Prize winner E-Tracer powered by AC Propulsion electric-drive system (reviews.cnet.com)

There were some pretty cool other contestants, too. Site is HERE.

-----The Golden Eagle

Solar Powered Flight! Yes!

In Bern, Switzerland, The Solar Impulse plane successfully made a 24-hour solar-powered flight! It actually went 2 hours over that amount of time, since the 12,000 solar cells kept it going longer than the engineer people expected. Andre Borschberg was the pilot, and I don't really envy him; over an entire day and night of flying non-stop. The wingspan of the plane is pretty surprising--207 feet wide! 

Isn't it neat looking?

Image by Deutsche Bank AG via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia