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 ...

Many of the processes essential to life involve proteins -- long molecules which 'fold' into three-dimensional shapes allowing them to perform their biological role. Many of the processes essential to ...

Tangles of string typically become knotted, from macroscopic twine down to long-chain macromolecules such as DNA. Here, we demonstrate that knotting also occurs in quantum wavefunctions, where the ...

Knots are everywhere—from tangled headphones to DNA strands packed inside viruses—but how an isolated filament can knot itself without collisions or external agitation has remained a longstanding ...

As chemists tie the most complicated molecular knot yet, biophysicists create a “periodic table” that describes what kinds of knots are possible. The world is tied up in knots. They form spontaneously ...

How can mathematical theory predict the strongest knots in real life? The answer to that question has remained elusive despite humans relying on knots for thousands of years while fishing, hunting, ...

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, ...