At this rate, they’ll be doing something almost perceptible…

…to subatomic particles by the time that I’m dead:

Teleportation Milestone Achieved

Scientists have come a bit closer to achieving the “Star Trek” feat of teleportation. No one is galaxy-hopping, or even beaming people around, but for the first time, information has been teleported between two separate atoms across a distance of a meter – about a yard.

This is a significant milestone in a field known as quantum information processing, said Christopher Monroe of the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, who led the effort.

Actually, no, I know that this is cool. It’s also part of my cunning plan: what I’m doing here is loudly saying that there’s going to be nothing to this any time soon. This is important because I am of course a nattering blowhard on the Internet with no knowledge of the science involved; the Invisible Hand of Fate is almost obligated to prove me wrong.

So, when we get Larry Niven-style transporter booths next year, you can just go ahead and show your appreciation. As the sidebar notes, I take PayPal.

Moe

PS: Fleet of Worlds was actually pretty good, but markedly different in style than his other Known Space books. Happens, I guess.