For decades, physicists have dreamed of a quantum internet: a planetary web of ultrasecure communications and super-powered computation built not from electrical signals, but from the ghostly connections between particles of light.

Now, scientists in Edinburgh say they’ve taken a major step toward turning that vision into something real.

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University have unveiled a prototype quantum network that links two smaller networks into one reconfigurable, eight-user system capable of routing and even teleporting entanglement on demand.