Page 276 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

266 History and Science of Knots

the coiled and tangled DNA in all our cell nucleii). And there is ample evi-
dence that those who construct and study knots make observations, carry out
experiments, and take measurements of one kind or another. These activities
may not correspond in kind, physically, with those of Chemists experimenting
with chemicals* in their laboratories; however, they do embody the spirit and
practices of `scientific method'.
The evidence to be presented in this chapter, together with that of most
other chapters in this book, convince the present author that the Study of
Knots can be regarded as a Science under the second definition too. Moreover,
he is satisfied that it qualifies as a Mathematical Science, with at least two
types and areas of mathematical modelling now available for enlarging its
study.
Before relating the above notions on what a Science is to the current states
of knowledge and theories about knots, we shall briefly trace the history and
contents of one well-known Science, namely Biology. Comparisons between
this example and the development and current state of `knot science' will then
be possible and useful.
Biology is often known as the Science of Life. It treats generally of the life
of animals and plants, including their morphology, physiology, origin, devel-
opment and distribution. It attempts to survey all the phenomena manifested
by living matter. It would seem that its `universe' is quite clear; and yet, at
bottom, it is notoriously difficult to distinguish the limit at which an object
may be said to be `living', rather than `inanimate'. Classification of living
objects into animals and plants is not always easy, either.
Granted these shaky foundations of object definition, the saga of the
development of the biological sciences is a long and exciting one. The study
of living beings has proceeded unchecked since prehistoric times. Beginning
with empirical folk-knowledge, collected and handed down orally over many
hundreds of years, much basic classification would be done as the observations
were collected. Leaving prehistory behind, and focussing on the development
of animal science, we can trace knowledge of human and other animal forms,
and of functions of visceral organs in them, in the records of the Babylonian
and Egyptian civilizations. In Greece, we find in the fifth century B.C. the
earliest attempts to organize such knowledge in systematic form. Hippocrates
(460-377 B.C.) discarded magical theories of disease, and Aristotle (384-322
B.C.) originated scientific classification. And so on, and on through the many
centuries up to the present-day, the organised knowledge on life forms has
accumulated, the literature on it bespattered with great names such as Harvey,

*Chemistry now has its knot-scientists . In 1989, French chemists synthesised the first knotted
compound ever made, a 124-atom molecule in the form of a trefoil. More complex knotted
molecules are now being produced.