'Beam me up, data'

Teleporting people through space, as is done in Star Trek, is impossible by the laws of physics. Teleporting information is another matter, however, thanks to the extraordinary world of quantum mechanics. Researchers at TU Delft's Kavli Institute of Nanoscience have succeeded in deterministically transferring the information contained in a quantum bit – the quantum analogue of a classical bit - to a different quantum bit 3 metres away, without the information having travelled through the intervening space: teleportation. The results will be published online in Science, on Thursday 29 May.

This development is an important step towards a quantum network for communication between future ultra-fast quantum computers – a quantum internet. Quantum computers will be able to solve certain important problems that even today's supercomputers are unable to tackle. Furthermore, a quantum internet will enable completely secure information transfer, as surreptitious eavesdropping will be fundamentally impossible in such a network.