Teleportation: The Impossible Leap Hardcover - 2005 - 1st Edition

An authoritative, entertaining examination of the ultimate thrill ride Until recently the stuff of sci-fi fiction and Star Trek reruns, teleportation has become a reality-for subatomic particles at least. In this eye-opening book, science author David Darling follows the remarkable evolution of teleportation, visiting the key labs that have cradled this cutting-edge science and relating the all-too-human stories behind its birth. He ties in the fast emerging fields of cryptography and quantum computing, tackles some thorny philosophical questions (for instance, can a soul be teleported?), and asks when and how humans may be able to "beam up."

It was a low-key affair: no television cameras or reporters were on hand.

The idea of teleportation is familiar to everyone who has watched Star Trek. With the words "beam me up," a person shimmers out of existence in one place and then rematerializes an instant later somewhere else.

No longer the stuff of science fiction, teleportation has become a reality. Though the current state of this cutting-edge science can transport only such light fare as subatomic particles, it is simply a matter of time before larger atoms, molecules, and eventually living things take the ultimate thrill ride. In Teleportation, science writer David Darling traces the evolution of this hugely exciting field, relating the all-too-human stories behind its birth and taking an in-depth look at the incredible possibilities that may await us in the next few decades.

Darling visits the key labs that cradled teleportation during its adolescence, outlining the remarkable experiments and discoveries that advanced the science. He masterfully ties in two of the hottest, fastest-growing fields--quantum cryptography and quantum computing--which share, along with teleportation, the strangest, most mysterious phenomenon in all of science at their core: entanglement.

Adding a rich context to the underlying science, Darling examines the thornier philosophical questions that would arise with the possible success of human teleportation, shedding new light on the existence of the soul and what it really means to be a human being. Would you want to be dismantled atom by atom knowing that what would rematerialize at the other end might just be a copy of the original you?

Authoritative, thought provoking, and thoroughly entertaining, Teleportation uncovers the powerful role this fascinating technology will play in all our futures--and reveals how it may soon become the not-so-impossible leap.