The Pros And Cons Of Quantum Entanglement

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In the popular Japanese cartoon ‘Doraemon’, the Dokodemo doa (or everywhere door) can transfer any object instantly. We may think that this is absurd in reality because it violates Einstein’s theory of relativity – nothing can travel faster than light. Chinese physicists, however, discovered recently that quantum entanglement could lead to a breakthrough of this limitation1. They worked on experiments repeatedly and finally proved that quantum entangled particles are able to transfer physical states much faster than light1. Does it mean that travelling superluminally (i.e. faster than light) is possible? Does quantum entanglement break all existing physical laws? What is quantum entanglement? The term ‘quantum entanglement’ may sound highly …show more content…

Although theory suggests that particles remain entangled regardless of their distance, the flaws of instruments such as optical fibers make this impossible in reality3. Chinese physicists and engineers are tackling this obstacle. In 2012, physicists at the University of Science and Technology of China (Shanghai) smashed the quantum teleportation record when they created two separated entangled photons at a distance of 97km successfully3. Since the old record of 16km was also achieved by another group of Chinese physicists7, there is no doubt that the development of quantum teleportation in China will continue to out-perform other countries. Quantum entanglement is a scientific phenomenon that is changing how scientists view well-known existing physical laws. Although the interactions of entangled particles are mysterious, they could turn out to be the key to secure communications. Though it may be disappointing that we cannot travel faster than light using entanglement at the moment, physicists are discovering more and more new, strange physical laws and it is still possible that Einstein’s theory of relativity is ultimately wrong. So, who knows? Maybe we will be able to travel superluminally one day or even have our very own personal Dokodemo