美国国家公共电台 NPR Beam Me Up, Scotty ... Sort Of. Chinese Scientists 'Teleport' Photon To Space

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

I mean, let's listen to this.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK¹: THE ORIGINAL SERIES")

JAMES DOOHAN: (As Captain Montgomery Scott) Ready to transport.

WILLIAM SHATNER: (As Captain James T. Kirk) Energize².

D. GREENE: Yes, the familiar sound of "Star Trek." You know, beam me up, Scotty. Well, I mean, it's total fantasy, right? Or is it? A few days ago, a team of Chinese scientists announced that they pulled off a successful teleportation. It involved a photon going from Earth into space. But quantum physics experts are telling us that we should not be all that excited about this, which is kind of sad because I was getting pretty excited about this.

Brian Greene - no relation I'm aware of at least - is a professor of physics and math of Columbia University. And he is going to explain all of this for us. Professor, thanks for coming on.

BRIAN GREENE: My pleasure.

D. GREENE: So this is not like "Star Trek"?

B. GREENE: Well, it's somewhere in between. In "Star Trek"...

D. GREENE: Oh.

B. GREENE: ...Of course, we're teleporting people. We're teleporting objects of everyday life. Here, we're just teleporting individual, single particles. But honestly, you should be hugely excited about that.

D. GREENE: OK.

B. GREENE: It's crazy, wonderful thing that we can do this.

D. GREENE: Well - so this is a photon that teleported. What exactly is a photon for people who aren't familiar?

B. GREENE: A photon is a little particle of light.

D. GREENE: OK.

B. GREENE: So in some sense, it's the smallest bundle or packet of light that there is.

D. GREENE: And this thing literally³ traveled in some very short amount of time over many, many miles.

B. GREENE: No, that's not quite right.

D. GREENE: OK.

B. GREENE: This kind of teleportation does not involve the object that you're teleporting literally traveling from the origin to the destination. Instead, what actually travels is the information describing the state of that particle. That's what travels from the start line to the finish line.

D. GREENE: So is this all that different than, say, encrypting information and sending something quietly and secretly across the internet to some other city?

B. GREENE: Well, in a sense, it is because here, there is a channel which is only possible because of the laws of quantum physics. You see, what the Chinese did was, they had two photons, one on the ground and one on the satellite that are so-called entangled⁴. And entangled particles have a weird⁵ connection. Einstein called it spooky action.

D. GREENE: (Laughter) OK.

B. GREENE: Whatever you do to the photon, say, on Earth immediately affects the photon up on the satellite. And that's what allows the information of a third photon that you want to teleport to be transmitted from Earth to the satellite effectively instantaneously.

D. GREENE: Let me just make sure I understand this. It is sounding like the implications here are not necessarily that I'm going to be beamed up by Scotty like in the movies, but there could be almost an arms race in terms of being able to send secret information, which could be used for spying, espionage⁶. I mean, has China does something kind of scary here when it comes to intelligence work?

B. GREENE: I should say that others have performed this teleportation before the Chinese. What the Chinese have done - they have executed this teleportation over the longest distance to date. But there is a security issue here because the first country to really build a quantum computer or quantum internet - they will be able to send effectively unhackable messages, and then they can even use the technology to try to hack⁷ into more conventional messages.

D. GREENE: And in terms of caring about one day being able to teleport or escape a terrible situation, like a dinner party you don't want to be at - does this take us any closer to being able to do that?

B. GREENE: Yeah, but don't hold your breath. I mean, it's an infinitesimal step.

D. GREENE: Brian Greene is a professor of physics and math at Columbia University and joined us on Skype. Professor, thanks so much.

B. GREENE: My pleasure.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALABAMA SHAKES SONG, "SOUND & COLOR")

1 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

2 energize   

vt.给予(某人或某物)精力、能量

参考例句：

• It is used to energize the city.它的作用是为城市供给能量。
• This is a great way to energize yourself and give yourself more power!这种方法非常棒，可以激活你的能量，让你有更多的活力！

3 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

4 entangled   

adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The bird had become entangled in the wire netting. 那只小鸟被铁丝网缠住了。
• Some military observers fear the US could get entangled in another war. 一些军事观察家担心美国会卷入另一场战争。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

6 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

7 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。