TELEPOHTHTfON 55
outcry was so great that Doyle was forced to resurrect the detective.
Because he couldn't kill off Sherlock Holmes, Doyle instead decided to
create an entirely new series, featuring Professor Challenger, who was
the counterpart of Sherlock Holmes. Both had a quick wit and a sharp
eye for solving mysteries. But while Mr. Holmes used cold, deductive
logic to break open complex cases, Professor Challenger explored the
dark world of spirituality and paranormal phenomena, including teleportation. In the 1927 novel The Disintegration Machine, the professor
encountered a gentleman who had invented a machine that could disintegrate a person and then reassemble him somewhere else. But Professor Challenger is horrified when the inventor boasts that his
invention could, in the wrong hands, disintegrate entire cities with
millions of people with a push of a button. Professor Challenger then
uses the machine to disintegrate the inventor, and leaves the laboratory, without reassembling him.
More recently Hollywood has discovered teleportation. The 1958
film The Fly graphically examined what could happen when teleportation goes horribly awry. When a scientist successfully teleports himself
across a room, his atoms mix with those of a fly that accidentally entered the teleportation chamber, so the scientist turns into a grotesquely mutated monster, half human and half fly. (A remake
featuring Jeff Goldblum was released in 1986.)
Teleportation first became prominent in popular culture with the
Star Trek series. Gene Roddenberry, Star TreKs creator, introduced
teleportation into the series because the Paramount Studio budget did
not allow for the costly special effects needed to simulate rocket ships
taking off and landing on distant planets. It was cheaper simply to
beam the crew of the Enterprise to their destination.
Over the years any number of objections have been raised by scientists about the possibility of teleportation. To teleport someone, you
would have to know the precise location of every atom in a living body,
which would probably violate the Heisenberg uncertainty principle
(which states that you cannot know both the precise location and the
velocity of an electron). The producers of the Star Trek series, bowing
to the critics, introduced "Heisenberg Compensators" in the trans-
outcry was so great that Doyle was forced to resurrect the detective.
Because he couldn't kill off Sherlock Holmes, Doyle instead decided to
create an entirely new series, featuring Professor Challenger, who was
the counterpart of Sherlock Holmes. Both had a quick wit and a sharp
eye for solving mysteries. But while Mr. Holmes used cold, deductive
logic to break open complex cases, Professor Challenger explored the
dark world of spirituality and paranormal phenomena, including teleportation. In the 1927 novel The Disintegration Machine, the professor
encountered a gentleman who had invented a machine that could disintegrate a person and then reassemble him somewhere else. But Professor Challenger is horrified when the inventor boasts that his
invention could, in the wrong hands, disintegrate entire cities with
millions of people with a push of a button. Professor Challenger then
uses the machine to disintegrate the inventor, and leaves the laboratory, without reassembling him.
More recently Hollywood has discovered teleportation. The 1958
film The Fly graphically examined what could happen when teleportation goes horribly awry. When a scientist successfully teleports himself
across a room, his atoms mix with those of a fly that accidentally entered the teleportation chamber, so the scientist turns into a grotesquely mutated monster, half human and half fly. (A remake
featuring Jeff Goldblum was released in 1986.)
Teleportation first became prominent in popular culture with the
Star Trek series. Gene Roddenberry, Star TreKs creator, introduced
teleportation into the series because the Paramount Studio budget did
not allow for the costly special effects needed to simulate rocket ships
taking off and landing on distant planets. It was cheaper simply to
beam the crew of the Enterprise to their destination.
Over the years any number of objections have been raised by scientists about the possibility of teleportation. To teleport someone, you
would have to know the precise location of every atom in a living body,
which would probably violate the Heisenberg uncertainty principle
(which states that you cannot know both the precise location and the
velocity of an electron). The producers of the Star Trek series, bowing
to the critics, introduced "Heisenberg Compensators" in the trans-