Here's the paper: http://www.pnas.org/content/104/42/16432.full
This is one of my favorite science items which wins a 2001 'Ignoble' prize in the Physics category. Although it is the subject of a lot of laughter, I feel it makes some important points. Intelligence is not required to knot a string, and anything long and flexible such as thread, wire, DNA etc will knot simply if it is in a confined space and shaken. It combines two initially symmetric things into a less symmetric one. No one has to add information to the string or direct it.
This has parallels in many other life experiences and affects many other kinds of lines, such as friendship lines, the timelines of our pasts, the air currents (which are like lines). Every kind of string tangles by itself, and that has implications for the beginning of life, too. Any particles kept together tend to entangle. Any people kept together entangle.
Any process that occurs in the presence of another process is not independent but is entangled with the other process. If there is randomness in nature, than it affects everything as every process is entangled with every other process in proximity. No system on Earth is isolated from every other system. We've seen this many ways, such as in the ecosystems and natural rhythms. Everything is tied together naturally and effortlessly.
This is one of my favorite science items which wins a 2001 'Ignoble' prize in the Physics category. Although it is the subject of a lot of laughter, I feel it makes some important points. Intelligence is not required to knot a string, and anything long and flexible such as thread, wire, DNA etc will knot simply if it is in a confined space and shaken. It combines two initially symmetric things into a less symmetric one. No one has to add information to the string or direct it.
This has parallels in many other life experiences and affects many other kinds of lines, such as friendship lines, the timelines of our pasts, the air currents (which are like lines). Every kind of string tangles by itself, and that has implications for the beginning of life, too. Any particles kept together tend to entangle. Any people kept together entangle.
Any process that occurs in the presence of another process is not independent but is entangled with the other process. If there is randomness in nature, than it affects everything as every process is entangled with every other process in proximity. No system on Earth is isolated from every other system. We've seen this many ways, such as in the ecosystems and natural rhythms. Everything is tied together naturally and effortlessly.
So ....if you agitate a string which is just minding its own business it will do something spontaneously.
