China’s Great Wall holds the key to quantum future

Paul Marks in New Scientist:

2497_infotechThe Great Wall of China is poised to play its part in pushing back the boundaries of quantum cryptography. Later this year a Chinese team, which has just broken the record for transmitting entangled particles, will test the feasibility of satellite-based quantum communication using the wall.

The Great Wall’s new role was revealed after Jian-Wei Pan of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei and his colleagues successfully transmitted “entangled” photons through more than 7 kilometres of the Earth’s turbulent lower atmosphere without losing the photons’ fragile quantum properties.

More here.