The researchers showed participants four knots that are physically similar but have a hierarchy of strength. People were asked to look at the knots, two at a time, and point to the strongest one. The ...

Researchers have unearthed a robust physics-based mechanism that dictates the sliding strength, or resistance to slippage, of the most common type of surgical knot. In particular, they have found that ...

We tie our shoes, we put on neckties, we wrestle with power cords. Yet despite deep familiarity with knots, most people ...

Long molecules such as DNA naturally form knots; short molecules rarely do. Chemists have learnt to tie smaller molecules into knots, but know little about the properties of these synthetic knots. To ...