Quantum teleportation breakthrough as scientists send data across cities - and it could lead to UNBREAKABLE encryption for computer networks

While Star Trek-style teleportation is still a long way off, researchers have revealed a major breakthrough in the field of quantum travel. Two separate teams have transferred quantum information over several miles of fibre optic networks in an urban network. The results could lead to more secure bank accounts, a faster internet and possibly even open the door to the controversial idea of human teleportation. One of the potential applications for quantum teleportation is a network of quantum computers (illustrated) and a'quantum internet' that is far faster and much more secure than current networks When atoms are'entangled' the measurement of one of the atoms will not only cause it to'pick' one state, but it will also instantaneously cause the atoms it is entangled with to do the same, even if that atom has not been measured itself. This means we automatically know information about all the atoms that are entangled at once, just by measuring one, and it does not matter how far apart in space the two entangled atoms are.