h+ Magazine

In recent years, scientists have learned how to use quantum entanglement to “teleport” information between photons and atoms at the speed of light, without the information traveling across the space between them. Now Masahiro Hotta at Tohoku University in Japan claims he has learned how to teleport energy.

Here’s how it would work: Start by entangling two particles and separating them. Measure the first particle, which injects quantum energy. Finally, a measurement of the second particle extracts the energy added to the first particle.

Sorry, quantum teleportation is only available to particles at the atomic and subatomic levels, so no Star Trek-style transporters anytime soon. And we’re still a long way from even a remotely-powered cell phone that never loses juice. If practical applications come about, we’ll likely see them first in extremely fast quantum computers. Until then, physicists have a new way of studying quantum energy and quantum information.