Using powerful lasers and optics to manipulate photons, a team of physicists at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai say they haves sent a photon more than 60 miles. Quantum teleportation is the ability to move one object from one place to another without traversing the space in between. The actual object is not moving from point A to point B. Rather, the distant photon mirrors the information contained by the original photon, essentially becoming an identical twin.
Though beaming up humans like we see in Star Trek is not realistic anytime soon, as the technology becomes more sophisticated, it will likely be applied to military communication. What’s the big deal? As Matthew Luce, a researcher at the Defense Group Inc.’s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, told TIME in 2010:
Theoretically, this method “cannot be cracked or intercepted,” says Matthew Luce, a researcher at the Defense Group Inc.’s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis. If the photons in the laser beam are observed by an outsider, the particles themselves will be altered. As such, the sender and receiver would be immediately informed that someone was snooping.
“These guys clearly have their eye on the possibility of satellite-based quantum cryptography which would provide ultra secure communications around the world.” This all but unbreakable code would be a perfect way to transmit classified information such as military directives or codes.