Once again, science has surprised us, making reality what we thought was impossible for a long time, something out of a science fiction movie… we’re talking about teleportation. This milestone happened in May 2025, when researchers managed to teleport a quantum state through fiber optic cables (yes, it’s the same as our internet). The next step is sending information to the most distant part of the universe.
How can a cable that transmits our internet teleport messages?
This idea of using fiber optic cables to teleport messages is not new, but only recently has a study put this idea into practice. We are talking about the experiment led by Northwestern University in the United States, which finally proved that quantum data and traditional internet data can coexist in the same optical fiber.
And how would this be possible? Well, here we will have to get into some technical terms: to begin with, we must remember that quantum communication does not use electrical impulses or conventional waves; it depends on individual photons, which are carriers of very sensitive quantum states, and can be lost when exposed to interference. And that is where the problem lies: the fibers we use today are full of intense signals from the traditional internet, causing a type of “optical pollution” that tends to destroy any quantum data in its path. Ok, but then how did they make teleportation possible?
Well, to get around this situation, the researchers separated the signals by wavelength, that is, the quantum photons go through a less “noisy” band of the spectrum, while the internet signals used the C band, the most common. The result you probably already know: they achieved a stable quantum communication channel, which can allow us to send information everywhere.
Can we teleport anything we want now?
So does this mean that, in addition to sending messages to the universe, this discovery will allow us to teleport ourselves around (as some German scientists did in this example)? Not quite… however, this new development is very similar to this dream, when we think about the technological aspect, of course. After all, they created a practically instantaneous communication channel, and this redefines the limits of what we understand when we think about sending information over great distances.
And how does teleportation work in practice? Well, some have doubts about how this process works, so let’s use more technical terms once again to explain:
- First, two photons are prepared so that they share the same quantum state.
- Then, a specific measurement is made on one of these photons and on another photon that contains the original information.
- Then, the state of this third photon disappears and appears in the entangled photon on the other side of the network.
And what are the impacts of this discovery?
The main point of this innovation, of course, is that it will no longer be necessary to build a new internet to support quantum technology. All we need to do is choose the right wavelengths and create suitable filters. Now, the researchers want to test the technique at even greater distances and conduct new experiments, because this allows us to:
- Create secure communication systems.
- Build distributed quantum computer networks.
- Apply to remote sensing and advanced medicine, with unprecedented precision.
This discovery by Northwestern University only shows that we are getting closer and closer to a new era of connectivity. And this is even more reinforced when we remember that Hawking had already predicted the key to teleportation. Some scientists have even deciphered this prediction and discovered that a certain object could be anywhere in the world.
