  One of the simplest time-dependent solutions of M theory consists of
nine-dimensional Euclidean space times 1+1-dimensional compactified Milne
space-time. With a further modding out by Z_2, the space-time represents two
orbifold planes which collide and re-emerge, a process proposed as an
explanation of the hot big bang. When the two planes are near, the light states
of the theory consist of winding M2-branes, describing fundamental strings in a
particular ten-dimensional background. They suffer no blue-shift as the M
theory dimension collapses, and their equations of motion are regular across
the transition from big crunch to big bang. In this paper, we study the
classical evolution of fundamental strings across the singularity in some
detail. We also develop a simple semi-classical approximation to the quantum
evolution which allows one to compute the quantum production of excitations on
the string and implement it in a simplified example.
