Holography is the science of making holograms, which are physical recordings of light fields that can reproduce three-dimensional images. Hungarian physicist Dennis Gabor invented the basic technique of holography in 1947 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for it in 1971. A hologram uses interference and diffraction of laser light to encode a full 3D light field rather than a 2D image, allowing it to retain depth and parallax properties. The two main types are transmission and reflection holograms. Holography has advantages like high resolution 3D images and use for security but also disadvantages such as needing specialized equipment and light sources to view images.