How and Why Knots Spontaneously Form

palegray.net writes "Scientists believe they have found the underlying reasons why knots are so common in the universe. This research helps us understand how knotty arrangements in various molecules lead to biological patterns, as in certain proteins. The article also provides a look at the field of topology, and how it relates to knots."

Comments

Hair

[Verteiron]

But can they explain why knots form in your hair after laying still for as little as an hour? My wife blames gnomes, and I'm inclined to agree with her.

Re:Hair

[nuclearpenguins]

Gnomes? I'm afraid knot.

Re:Hair

[Anonymous Coward]

It can't be gnomes, it has to be KDEs.

Re:Hair

[dbolger]

A more relevant example would be how you can set up a PC for the first time, and have all the cables carefully arranged so that there is no crossing over or tangling, and yet when you come back six months later, to add a new device or to swap out a cable, every single one of them is wrapped tightly around the others to such an extent that you can't understand how it could come about without somebody doing it intentionally.

Re:Hair

[sound vision]

Gnome has it's own version of knot, it's just called gnot.

All knotted up for next year.

[theleoandtherat]

Any tip about packing christmas lights?

Do we really need an answer?

[pla]

This research helps us understand how knotty arrangements in various molecules lead to biological patterns, as in certain proteins.

Because He reached out his noodly appendage and put the spark of life in our universe.


"And the earth was without form, and void; and straightness was upon the face of the pan. And His Noodly Appendage moved upon the face of the sauce.

And FSM said, Let there be knots: and there were knots.

And FSM saw the knots, that they were good: and FSM divided the knots from the straightness as happens when you boil short and long pasta at the same time.

And FSM called the knots Spaghetti, and the straightness he called Ziti. And the strands and tubes were the first course."


Duh?

Yes, but what about shoe laces, huh?

[Prototerm]

That explains why knots spontaneously form in wires and cables when you stick them in a box, but what about the way knots spontaneously come undone in your shoe laces? Perhaps in an alternate universe, shoe laces spontaneously knot themselves, and wires and cables untangle in storage. Of course, with that sort of altered physics, Homer Simpson would probably be the President of the United States.

Oh, wait.