Knotty professors: chemists break world record to create tightest knot ever made

A microscopic circular triple helix built from a strand of atoms could make a whole new world of materials possible

In a feat that breaks one of the most obscure world records in science, a team of chemists has created a microscopic circular triple helix, or put in more simple terms, the tightest knot ever made.

Researchers in Manchester in the UK built the knot from a strand of atoms which curls around in a triple loop and crosses itself eight times. Made from 192 atoms linked in a chain, the knot is only two millionths of a millimetre wide - around 200,000 times thinner than a human hair.