Quantum state teleportation vs Star Trek teleportation

[ZapperZ]

Teleportation... AGAIN!

OK, so am I the only one who gets annoyed after reading an article like this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20050708/sc_space/teleportationexpresslanespacetravel

It is of no wonder that most people do not understand that a "teleportation" of a quantum state is NOT the same as those star trek teleportation. The line between these two are thoroughly blurred in this article.

I'm all for selling the importance of physics, especially the field one is working in. But honestly, this over-extension of what we know can be detrimental to the field itself.

Zz.

 

[Dr Transport]

Zz,

Remember that these articles are written by jounralists for John Q Public so that they write their Congressmen and Senators to fund science in general. Self respecting scientists do not publish in online magazines like Space.com. A poll of the average person would tell you that they believe probably more than 95% of what they read on the internet.

I agree, the line was completely blurred in this article. We don't understand enough about the phenomenon to make claims like that. I consider the article to be "Science Fiction", very little science mostly fiction as I do most articles I read on Yahoo News. I take them with a grain of salt, consider the source and go on doing good science. Eventually the truth will come out and these guys will be put in their place. I don't think I'll ever see it, but sometime down the road.

Dr T

 

[Janus]

This "article" seems like more of a blurb for a book than anything else. I share your frustration. Articles like this tend to foster misconceptions that usually undo any good they might do.