Beam me up, Scotty. It’s a famous line from an even more famous TV show. And this month, that line came closer to reality as a team of European scientists successfully teleported a block of data nearly 90 miles using a theory called “quantum entanglement.” What makes this noteworthy is not only that it makes using a Star Trek like transporter one step closer to reality, but also that the theory used also has Trek origins.

Quantum entanglement is rather heady stuff for the average person to get their head around, but essentially, it involves of teleporting the so-called “state of matter,” rather than matter itself. So far, scientists have only been able to move photons of light and small packets of data between telescopes in a line of sight fashion, but hopes are high that this new technique will allow for the transporting of encrypted data packages from space.

Sadly, man is lightyears away from being able to utter the word “energize” in real life. It seems that all the computer memory in the entire world couldn’t hold the information necessary to beam one atom of the human physiology, much less and entire body. But as of today, the ability to transport data, and perhaps more is one step closer to that goal.