First quantum teleportation between light and matter: "This is the first case of successful teleportation between objects of a different nature - the ones representing a 'flying' medium (light), the other a 'stationary' medium (atoms). The result presented here is of interest not only for fundamental research, but also primarily for practical application in realising quantum computers or transmitting coded data (quantum cryptography).

Since the beginning of the nineties research into quantum teleportation has been booming with theoretical and experimental physicists. Transmission of quantum information involves a fundamental problem: According to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle two complementary properties of a quantum particle, e.g. location and momentum cannot be precisely measured simultaneously. The entire information of the system thus has to be transmitted without being completely known. But the nature of the particles also carries with it the solution to this problem: the possibility of 'entangling' two particles in such a way that their properties become perfectly correlated. If a certain property is measured in one of the 'twin' particles, this determines the corresponding property of the other automatically and with immediate effect. "