>> S "The Future will not be like Star Trek"
>>tephen.
>
> I don't know about that... I read an article
>today where they were able to teleport a beam of
>light. Something about photon twinning and
>entanglement theory. Can you say "Beam me up,
>Scotty?" They're looking at teleporting
>bacteria next.
>

Where did you read this?? From what I know, the whole quantum entanglement thing isn't really anything we'd think of as teleporting, although it is one kind of teleporting, I guess. When I think of teleporting, I think of actually breaking the object down into the constiuent molecules, transporting those molecules across space, and reassembling them. But that's not really the most cost effective way of doing it--better would be to just scan the target, transport the *information* across space, and assemble an exact copy in the new location. Then you have the messy ethics of which is which--am I here at the beginning, or is that "me" over at the other place?

Anyway, that's what quantum entanglement is all about, AFAIK. You take two photons that are "entangled" and shoot them in different directions. That way, whatever you do to one automatically happens to the other--change the spin of the one in your lab and you automatically change the spin of the one buzzing through space. Don't ask me how it works or to explain it better than that, I don't understand a lick of quantum theory--I can only parrot what I've read, mostly.

Anyway, I'd never heard a thing about doing anything bigger than a photon, much less something as comparatively gargantuan as a bacteria. Heck, I didn't even know they had a clue how to do it with any particle *other* than a photon.

Anyway, this is the third paragraph I've started with anyway.