Question: What practical applications do, or will, your knotted molecules have?

David August answered on 16 Mar 2021:

Tying a knot in a piece of string changes its shape. The same thing happens at a molecular level, so a lot of current ideas focus on using that change in shape to switch something on or off. For instance, we can use knots to change the shape of liquid crystals (the same things that are in many TVs). Having said that, we’re a long way from deliberately using molecular knots for anything – but we’re getting there!