Science: Teleportation

The concept of quantum teleportation -- the disembodied complete transfer of the state of a quantum system to any other place: "Beam me up, Scotty" to you and me -- was first experimentally realized between two different light beams. Later it became also possible to transfer the properties of a stored ion to another object of the same kind. A team of scientists at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Quantenoptik has now shown that the quantum states of a light pulse can also be transferred to a macroscopic object, an ensemble of 10 to the power of 12 atoms. This is the first case of successful teleportation between objects of a different nature - the one representing a "flying" medium (light), the other a "stationary" medium (atoms).

The rest of the story: <First quantum teleportation between light and matter>.