Military examines ‘beaming up’ data, people

Wouldn’t it be neat, they ask, if we could nab bin Laden via teleportation? In “Star Trek,” the characters traveled between spaceship and planet by having their bodies dematerialized, then “beamed” to another locale — hence, the characters’ familiar request to the ship’s engineer: “Beam me up, Scotty.”
That’s teleportation.
Although many physicists think such ideas are claptrap, it would be ideal if the United States could teleport U.S. soldiers into “a cave, tap bin Laden on the shoulder, and say: ‘Hey, let’s go,’ ” said Ranney Adams, spokesperson for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base in the Southern California desert. “But we’re not there (yet).”
Not for want of trying, though. Last year, the Air Force spent $25,000 on a report, titled “Teleportation Physics Study,” to examine possible ways to teleport humans and objects through space.
Military examines ‘beaming up’ data, people / Critics say its extreme computing, energy needs keep teleportation unlikely for now

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