A few days ago, scientists at Delft University reliably got teleportation to work with 100% reproducibility. (Read the full story at CNET.) This is huge.

First we need to understand qubits. Basically, a qubit is a quantum bit. Qubits have 3 states where classical bits (the ones in our computers, phones, etc) have two: 1 & 0. Qubits have a “spin” which can be up, down, or both. Quantum stuff is a little mind blowing since things can be doing two things at once.

Here’s a really great video explaining quantum computing if you want to know more:

So this new teleportation stuff means they can teleport the state of a qubit across several meters of space in a lab.

Quantum teleportation is not teleportation in the sense one might think. It involves achieving a certain set of parameters that then allow properties of one quantum system to get tangled up with another so that observations are reflected simultaneously, thereby "teleporting" the information from one place to another.

This could be huge for networking and all kinds of other applications. It’s exciting living in the future.