Knotting and unknotting are examples of fascinating nonlinear physics, with applications to DNA replication, properties of polymers, and everyday life.
2010 summer project students observed spontaneous knotting of a chain. After 1 minute 14 seconds, the chain in the video becomes knotted. Entropy of the knotted chain is smaller than the entropy of the unknotted chain. Does self-assembly process of knotting violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics?
Every research starts with studying theoretical background and the other research groups experiments. A list of recommended articles and reports will be helpful in finding the most important sources of information. All of them are available on the Internet or in the library. You will get hard copies of all listed sources.
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Last updated on February 28, 2012