In 1993 a scientific paper was published dealing with a strange phenomena called "entanglement", and using this paper as a basis for experimentation, scientific teams in several countries including the US have been able to successfully teleport photons. Photon is the name given to a small bundle or quantum of electromagnetic energy. It is used when describing the particle-like behavior of electromagnetic waves (including light waves).

But how is it possible to teleport anything ? Well to transport a photon you would have to know its individual quantum state. The reason you would have to know this is because you have to know what that particle's nature and its behavior will be like.

Werner Heisenberg lived from 1901 to 1976 and was one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century. He founded quantum mechanics and was responsible for the uncertainty principle in quantum theory. What, you might ask, does this have to do with teleportation ? The uncertainty principle states, "The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa." In layman's terms it means that no one could know particle position and particle speed because the more accurate the scan the more it would disturb the target on a subatomic level. So that is why teleportation requires three photons.

First we entangle two photons. This is accomplished by sending a very short pulse composed of ultraviolet light through a crystal. This splits the photon, which is a high energy photon, into two photons both are at lower energy states. Because both photons are now complementary, they are entangled and the orientation is known. One part of the puzzle is now solved.

One of the photons is now sent to the same location, it is unentangled and becomes a third photon there. This third photon becomes entangled with one of the other photons that were split. A test is performed knows a a Bell state measurement and this transforms the second of the two original entangled photons. It is transported.

This method doesn't violate Heisenberg's uncertainty rule.

But the question is this, will this rule have to be violated in order to perform successful teleporting of complex animals and matter and even people? Some scientists state that if we knew know both the position and speed of a basic particle, this would allow the exact copying of matter down to the subatomic level. This would mean that anything could be teleported, even you and I.

I am not a scientist, you can tell this by just reading this article unfortunately, but one thing does bother me. It might be because of my small brain but it seems that one photon is changed into another and this is called teleportation. But is it really teleportation or something else ? It may be something we don't understand that is taking place, or it my just be the changing of one photon into another. On simpler terms here is my question. Let us assume it is the future and "Bob" is going to teleport 100 miles away. The operation is a success and "Bob" appears. But is that the true "Bob" or some sort of a clone we see that acts like "Bob" and believes he is "Bob" but we have really killed the original "Bob" ? How would we ever know the answer to this ?

ANU physicist Ping Koy Lam said, "What we have demonstrated here is that we can take billions of photons, destroy them simultaneously, and then recreate them in another place." Notice the use of the word destroyed.

But has teleportation been tried before ? The US Navy says they never tried it, but the story of the Philadelphia Experiment is famous. Supposedly an experiment was conducted in 1943. The purpose of this experiment was to shield a ship from radar. To this end a ship, The Eldridge, was fitted with secret devices. It is said that a witness saw the ship disappear when the device was turned on and the ship reappeared in a different location. The story goes on to say that some of the crew were fused into the plating of the ship. Was this really an experiment in teleportation?

Eldridge
Source: US Navy