TIME ranks univ. invention among best of the year

The atom-to-atom teleportation machine developed by the university's Joint Quantum Institute landed sixth place in TIME Magazine's 50 best inventions of 2009 — beating a possible AIDS vaccine, an electric eye that could give blind people partial vision and a mind-reading machine.

The machine, the first to successfully transfer quantum information from one atom to another a meter away, is a landmark in its field, last week's report said.  

"It is nice to get exposure for the [Joint Quantum Institute], especially in something as existential as quantum physics," lead researcher and physics professor Chris Monroe said.

Although the field of quantum information processing is still in its infancy, many scientists have speculated it could lead to computers that can break codes too complex for modern computers, create more secure communication technology and even help determine how quantum theory fits into classical theories such as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

The six physicists who work on the project form just one of 26 groups in the Joint Quantum Institute, a partnership between the university and the National Institute of Standards and Technology that is located in the Computer and Space Science Building.

The researchers published an initial report in January and are currently working on boosting the machine's consistency.

"Before we would try, try, try, and then it would work," graduate student David Hayes said. "Now there is a red flag that tells us that the machine is ready and that now we can [transport the information]."

Researchers are also collaborating with other universities to develop quantum computing with the goal of creating computers that run on charged atoms instead of electronic circuits. However, researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute will focus mostly on the secure communication aspects of atom-to-atom teleportation. They expect to announce several advances during the next year, Monroe said.

"There are some people doing some impressive work in quantum physics that do not get the recognition, but we got a lot," Hayes said. "A lot has to do with the name — teleportation grabs people's attention — but what we have done is significant and can lay the ground work for technology that can have a wide impact on how we live our lives in the future."

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