There are thousands upon thousands of these kinds of conceptual tangles in a bewildering corner of mathematics known as knot theory, but even there Conway’s discovery was special—not so much for what ...

Such loops are called mathematical knots. Geometric topology is a beautiful and complex subject, and there are still countless exciting questions to answer about spaces. For example, the smooth 4D ...

6, 118–121; 2010). Mark Dennis and co-workers use mathematical knot theory to construct complex functions in an abstract 3D space on a periodic braid. The knot function is then embedded in a ...

“In pure mathematics, ‘knots’ are purely mathematical entities, but they are powerful concepts for studying real things,” explains pure-mathematician Yuka Kotorii, deputy director of ...