![Some knots that are really tangles. In a post about tangle machines, Daniel Moskovich imagines telling another professional that he, a mathematician, studies knots: "Why knots? Do I want to tie ships to their moorings more securely? What am I up to? Why would a mathematician study knots?" Image: public domain, from Nordisk Familjebok, via Projekt Runeberg, and Wikimedia Commons.](http://blogs.ams.org/blogonmathblogs/files/2013/08/knots-tangles.png)
Knots and tangles. In a post about “tangle machines,” Daniel Moskovich imagines trying to explain to an educated non-mathematician what he studies: “Why knots? Do I want to tie ships to their moorings more securely?”
Image: public domain, from Nordisk Familjebok, via Projekt Runeberg, and Wikimedia Commons.
Low Dimensional Topology is, logically enough, a blog about low-dimensional topology. Authors Ryan Budney, Nathan Dunfield, Jesse Johnson, Daniel Moskovich, and Henry Wilton write about 2-, 3-, and 4-manifolds, knot theory, quantum topology, and more Heegaard splittings than you can shake a stick at, if you are in the habit of shaking sticks at Heegaard splittings. Posts are expository but aimed at other topologists, and the authors often cover recent results in their fields. They’ve also written about a number of open problems and keep an up-to-date list of relevant conferences.
Read the full post at the AMS Blog on Math Blogs.
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