These strings are holograms of events that take place in a simpler, flatter cosmos. Professor Maldacena's model suggests that the universe exists in nine dimensions of space, and one of time.
In December, Japanese researchers attempted to tackle this problem by providing mathematical evidence that the holographic principle might be correct.
The holographic principle suggests that, like the security chip on a credit card for example, there is a two-dimensional surface that contains all the information needed to describe a three-dimensional object - which in this case is our universe.
In essence, the principle claims that data containing a description of a volume of space - such as a human or a comet - could be hidden in a region of this flattened, 'real' version of the universe.
In a black hole, for instance, all the objects that ever fall into it would be entirely contained in surface fluctuations. This means that the objects would be stored almost as 'memory' or fragment of data rather than a physical object in existence.
