‍

Blake, Wm. Christ in the Sepulchre, Guarded by Angels.’ Great Britain. 1808.

‍

Scientists in South Africa and Spain have successfully teleported images using light, with researchers calling it “a ‘Star Trek’ technology made real.”

The team achieved the feat using laser light patterns and an optical detector that harnessed quantum processes. Essentially, some principles of quantum physics allow information about an image to appear on the receiver’s end without having to physically travel from the sender.

Andrew Forbes, a professor who led the research: “Traditionally, two communicating parties physically send the information from one to the other, even in the quantum realm. Now, it’s possible to teleport information so that it never physically travels across the connection—a ‘Star Trek’ technology made real.”

Notably, the scientists warned that this technology could be used nefariously to produce clones.

Adam Vallés, researcher: “We have to be cautious now, as this configuration could not prevent a cheating sender from keeping better copies of the information to be teleported, which means we could end up with many Mr. Spock clones in the Star Trek world if that is what Scotty wanted.”

The achievement offers a glimpse at the potential of quantum communications, an emerging field that could allow data to be sent across distances far greater than modern telecommunication systems currently offer.