Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Find a string. Really. Do it. Now twist, tie and tangle it as much as you like. Finally, attach the two loose ends of your string ...

Consider a short piece of rope: could you guess which knots are more likely to form if you crumple and shake it? Synthetic chemists have long been working on a molecular version of this problem and, ...

You may not have heard of knot theory. But take it from Bill Menasco, a knot theorist of 35 years: This field of mathematics, rich in aesthetic beauty and intellectual challenges, has come a long way ...

Q: When is a knot not a knot? A: When it's a quantum computer. Steve Simon explains how a remarkable link between knot theory and certain quantum systems may be useful for quantum information ...

Using computational predictive models, the scientists identified a shortlist, a kind of 'periodic table', of the most designable knot types, i.e. those knots that could easily self-assemble under ...