Hey kids, Star Trek is on. Right now!

Did you guys catch this story today? I almost fell out of my chair.
From:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.nl.html?pid=20993

FIRST QUANTAM TELEPORTATION BETWEEN LIGHT AND MATTER

"Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching
and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen have succeeded in
transferring a quantum state of light to a material object - an
ensemble of atoms."

"The concept of quantum teleportation - the disembodied complete
transfer of the state of a quantum system to any other place - was
first experimentally realised between two different light beams. Later
it became also possible to transfer the properties of a stored ion to
another object of the same kind... This is the first case of successful
teleportation between objects of a different nature - the one
representing a 'flying' medium (light), the other a 'stationary' medium
(atoms)."

It struck me in fact that this might turn out to be the biggest
scientific story since the splitting of the atom. Amazing.

frank