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Published online 22 January 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.50
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Atom takes a quantum leap
Ytterbium ion is the first element to be teleported over a distance.
Researchers have teleported a single ion of the element ytterbium over a metre in distance, shattering previous records. Photons have gone further but teleportation of matter has only occurred between ions in the same trap over a few micrometers.
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Hello folks the article is unclear. Does this mean the protons, electrons, neutrons and orbits stopped existing on one side of the experiment and reappeared on the other side? Cheers Bustedbits
No, it doesn't Marc. Teleportation in the quantum sense means that the information is moved from one atom to another. If you really wanted to "beam something up" with this setup, then you'd need to have a bunch of atoms on the other end that would serve as a kind of feedstock.
The authors of such articles, and similar ones that have potential to be provocative, should be very careful to be clear about the physics. They should know that high level journals, as Nature, have also reading by journalist and laymen hungry for the news that go "beyond science". They get misleading impression of the true physics is and transform science into a mysticism.