The "information loss paradox" in black holes—a problem that has plagued physics for nearly 40 years—may not exist.

Shred a document, and you can piece it back together. Burn a book, and you could theoretically do the same. But send into a black hole, and it's lost forever.

That's what some physicists have argued for years: That are the ultimate vaults, entities that suck in information and then evaporate without leaving behind any clues as to what they once contained.

But new research shows that this perspective may not be correct.

"According to our work, information isn't lost once it enters a black hole," says Dejan Stojkovic, PhD, associate professor of physics at the University at Buffalo. "It doesn't just disappear."

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