THE KNOT THEORY OF MOLECULES

Macromolecules (such as polymethelyene and DNA) are large and flexible, and can present themselves in 3-space in topologically interesting ways. The branch of topology known as knot theory is the mathematical study of flexible graphs in 3- space. Knot theory can be used to quantify and compare the various configurations of large molecules, and to study the various spatial isomers of molecules which have complicated molecular graphs.