The Holographic Universe: When a Small Film Still Holds Traces of the Whole World

Cut an ordinary photograph in half and half the scene disappears. A hologram behaves differently. It does not record an image as separate coloured dots. It records how light waves from an object meet a reference light wave. When the right light shines through the developed film, the eye sees a three-dimensional image. A small cut piece can still reconstruct the whole scene, although the image becomes less clear and the viewing angle narrows.