Vision: Teleportation; Beam Me Up, DARPA.

Is teleportation possible? The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) is willing to bet it is. In early 2008, the agency issued a request for proposals to learn more about quantum entanglement, among the strangest phenomena known to science. The project, called Quantum Entanglement Science and Technology (QuEST), could produce unbreakable codes, unbelievably fast computers, and even Star Trek's transporter.

In quantum mechanics, a particle, such as an electron circling the nucleus of an atom, does not have an actual location or physical state. All that can be said of it is a set of equations that describe its probability of being in a given place with a given energy, vibrating in certain ways. In effect, it occupies all of its possible states at once, "collapsing" into a single one only when observed. Two particles whose vibrations are the same in all dimensions are said to occupy the same quantum state.

In theory, it should be possible to prepare two particles, such as electrons, so that their quantum properties are "entangled" or linked together. And if you observed the properties of one electron, the other would instantly fall into the same state, no matter how far apart they were. Einstein called this "spooky action at a distance" and set about finding a better theory to explain the effect without invoking faster-than-light communication. He never succeeded, and physicists have since demonstrated that quantum entanglement really exists. This brings up some interesting possibilities, such as instantaneous travel.

Quantum teleportation would work just like the Star Trek transporter, by reading an object's quantum state and sending that information to the destination so that the object can be recreated there. In research not funded by DARPA but pointing the way for the agency's efforts, Ashton Bradley and his colleagues at the Australian Research Council's quantum-atom optics lab in Brisbane have done it--at least on the atomic scale.

For teleportation, the Australian researchers make a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of rubidium atoms. A BEC is a substance that occurs when bosons are at very low temperatures; it can instantly freeze certain particles it comes in contact with. The researchers then aim a beam of rubidium atoms at the condensate. Instantly chilled, the atoms in the beam also drop to their lowest state, getting rid of the extra energy by giving off a burst of light. Astonishingly, that light contains all the quantum information needed to reconstitute the atom. Aim it at another BEC, and whatever atom it strikes takes on the quantum state of the original atom.