  Since the early days of the theory of electromagnetism and of gravity the
idea of space, then space-time, as a sort of physical continuum hovered the
scientific community. Actually general relativity shows the strong similarity
that exists between the geometrical properties of space-time and the ones of a
strained elastic continuum. The bridge between geometry and the elastic
potential, as well in three as in three plus one dimensions, is the strain
tensor, read as the non-trivial part of the metric tensor. On the basis of this
remark and exploiting appropriate multidimensional embeddings, it is possible
to build a full theory of space-time, allowing to account for the accelerated
expansion of the universe. How this can be obtained is the content of the
paper. The theory fits the cosmic accelerated expansion data from type Ia
supernovae better than the Lambda-CDM model.
