• Question: Do you think some time later in life we will be able to teleport and how would it work.

    Asked by azzawesome to Saima, Julie, James, Daniel, Antoine on 14 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: James Hickey

      James Hickey answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      Hi azzawesome!

      I think (and hope) we will. But I fear it could take so long to research and develop that I will be long dead by the time it happens.

      The actual theory behind teleportation will require an object to be entirely deconstructed to individual atoms at one point, and then reconstructed the exact same way at the other end. Any slight differences in the rebuilding could cause serious problems!

      Some success has been made in this science. Teams have been able to teleport photons (particles of energy that carry light), laser beams and atoms short distances. This technology may one day end up in a super-fast and powerful ‘quantum computer’.

      But human teleportation is a way off. If you apply yourself in the right way, maybe you could be the one to make it work…

    • Photo: Julie Speakman

      Julie Speakman answered on 18 Nov 2013:

      Hi again azzawesome!
      Have you had a good weekend?

      I was surprised to read that scientists have made some progress with this, as James said (and there is an article here from the BBC from 2004 if you are interested). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3811785.stm

      My understanding is that teleportation is about not actually moving matter across physical space but transferring certain characteristics between atoms – apparently this includes things like an atom’s energy, motion and magnetic field. So, I suppose in theory if we could ever find away of extracting this information from atoms and reassigning it to other atoms, this would be a way things or people could teleport.
      I’m not sure I fancy it actually! Although it does sound pretty cool. A long way off I think, and certainly not within my lifetime….maybe in your’s?

Comments