Quantum Entanglement holds some big promises. It is the one thing that can claim, at least in theory, to exceed the speed of light. You have two atoms that are, statewise, exact mirror images of each other. If one is "up," the other is "down." It would have many applications if it weren't so totally fragile.
Discovery News now reports that researchers have maintained a quantum entanglement across a distance of 16 kilometers, about 9.94 miles to imperial measurement users. An impressive distance, but nowhere near the distances that I'd like to use it for.
This is good news for those hoping to build quantum computers -- the more stable entanglements will be necessary to entangle the multiple bits required to make quantum computers useful. This is only slightly good news on the communication front -- currently attempting to read or write to the entanglement collapses it. The best we can measure is that there is still indeed an entanglement. But I predict this will improve with increasing technology.
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