Can You Tie It in a Knot? Knotting Particle Defect Lines (1 of 8) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Can You Tie It in a Knot? Knotting Particle Defect Lines (1 of 8)

Caption

Knots and links of arbitrary complexity are created and reconfigured from topological defect loops in the particle-stabilized chiral nematic liquid crystal using laser tweezers. The laser-induced micro-quenches locally rewire the disclination loops and essentially change the topology of entangled nematic braids. Designed by Simon Čopar. This image relates to an article that appeared in the July 1, 2011, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Uroš Tkalec of the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and colleagues was titled, "Reconfigurable Knots and Links in Chiral Nematic Colloids."

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[Image © <i>Science/</i>AAAS]

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