The Chinese have proposed teleportation of a bacteria

  • Level: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter Nicky665
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Bacteria Teleportation
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
Sign up Log in
5 replies · 2K views
Nicky665
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Is there any physical reason why the teleportation of a microorganism would be absolute fantasy ?

The wikipedia page for quantum teleportation says nothing bigger than an atom has been teleported.

"Here we propose a straightforward method to create quantum superposition states of a living microorganism by putting a small cryopreserved bacterium on top of an electromechanical oscillator"

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095927316302171

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-physicists-scheme-teleport-memory.html
 
Physics news on Phys.org

Discussion

Quantum teleportation does not involve moving matter from "here" to "there". Typically it involves shifting of a quantum state in some manner, and that could include it traversing a distance. So I would say the title of this thread is highly misleading. The article does not claim the bacteria itself is being teleported anywhere.

So yes, teleporting a microorganism would be absolute fantasy (given the laws of physics).
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Nicky665, bhobba, Doc Al and 1 other person
First, they have not done it, but proposed it could be done. But there is nothing special in their proposal, apart from "it has been done with a, so we could do it with b". (Substitute "15-μm-diameter aluminum membrane" for a and "microorganism" for b.)

Second, what they want to teleport is the center-of-mass oscillation. They propose also entangling it first with an internal state of a microorganism. More specifically, they mention the electron spin in a molecule of glycine. How can you consider that glycine is a "microorganism"? Beats me.

Third, how could you do it with a bacteria? For the scheme to work, the two objects have to be identical. How could you get two identical bacteria?
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Nicky665, bhobba, Doc Al and 3 others
Well of course I know its not about moving matter from here to there. What does identical mean ? Whats the point of Quantum teleportation if at the other end the object is already identical in all aspects including electron state and everything? Doesnt no cloning theorem forbid that? Wouldnt it suffice to get a simillar bacteria with the help of cloning/genetic manipulation?
 
Nicky665 said:
Whats the point of Quantum teleportation if at the other end the object is already identical in all aspects including electron state and everything??

That isn't correct. I suggest reading 'Sneaking a Look at God's Cards' by GianCarlo Ghirardi to get a better understanding of QM (and in particular the chapter on teleportation).
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Nicky665
Nicky665 said:
What does identical mean ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identical_particles

Nicky665 said:
Whats the point of Quantum teleportation if at the other end the object is already identical in all aspects including electron state and everything?
They are identical, but are not in the sames state initially. The idea is to transfer the state of system A to that of system B.

Nicky665 said:
Doesnt no cloning theorem forbid that?
No, because the state is not copied, but transferred. After teleportation, the state of system A has changed.
Nicky665 said:
Wouldnt it suffice to get a simillar bacteria with the help of cloning/genetic manipulation?
It wouldn't work with similar bacteria because their quantum states would belong to different Hilbert spaces. It would make no sense to talk about quantum teleportation of a state in that case.