The concept of teleportation, meaning to move or carry something far away, has been used in science fiction and has also been researched by scientists. While breakthroughs have been made, we are still a long way from teleporting anything as big as a human.
“Broadcast me, Scotty,” might be one of the most recognizable lines from the first Star Trek series. The phrase refers to the Star Trek world’s use of the concept of teleportation. Tele (Greek) and porta (Latin), become teleportation and translate into moving or carrying something far away. In Star Trek the Earth had evolved this technology to be able to move both objects and people long enough distances.
Gene Rodenberry was simply building on already existing concepts, with the word first coined by Charles Fort in the 1930s. He used the term to describe the sudden and strange appearance of unexplained things like crop circles or a rain of frogs. Fort believed that such phenomena were due to teleportation, although his findings are often disputed and there have been some scientific explanations for some things he attributed to teleportation.
The idea of teleportation has been used in science fiction and has also been the subject of many claims throughout history. In particular, incidents such as the one involving Sister Mary Agreda have been used as evidence for the existence of teleportation. In the 17th century, this nun claimed that while she was immersed in prayer in Spain, she ended up in New Mexico and she brought Christianity to the Indian tribes there. Strangely, when Spain discovered Native American tribes, they knew about Christianity, lending credence to Sister Mary’s story. However, many of these stories have been hoaxes and there are certainly other explanations than Sister Mary’s.
In science, teleportation has been of great interest. While we’re by no means ready to “transport” anyone, anywhere in the foreseeable future, physicists have made some breakthroughs in this area. In 2002, scientists from the Australian National University were able to successfully teleport a laser beam a few meters. Two years later, scientists in both Austria and the United States were able to teleport some ions. In Denmark in 2006, a multi-atom, very small object was moved by half a meter.
There are essentially two types of researched teleporters. Exact teleportation means that an exact object in its original form is removed from one point and appears in another. You can also transport an object inexactly, by encoding all the data about its components and reproducing it elsewhere.
We’re still a long way from teleporting anything as big as a human, or any kind of animal, given the billions of atoms involved. But the question remains of interest to science fiction writers and scientists alike. The potential, especially for recreating an object of all its constituent parts, is quite fascinating. For example, in Star Trek, teleportation could be a way to solve genetic coding problems, remove disease, or even lose weight, because it involves rebuilding the person at a level smaller than the atomic level.
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