ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Molecular knot

Imagine you have a rope that you want to tie into a knot, but instead of using your hands to do it, you have tiny little creatures called atoms that can do it for you. These atoms can join together in specific ways to create molecules, which are like little structures made of atoms.

Now, imagine you have a few of these molecules and you want to tie them together in a knot. This is called a molecular knot, and it's kind of like tying a piece of string into a bow. Except instead of string, you're using really tiny molecules, and instead of tying by hand, the atoms in the molecules join together in a special way to make the knot.

Making a molecular knot is like solving a puzzle, because you have to figure out which atoms need to connect to which other atoms in order to create the knot shape. It's also really cool because not only is it a neat shape, but it can also have some important uses, like in medicine or electronics.

So, basically, a molecular knot is a cool shape made of little molecules that were carefully joined together by atoms to create the knot shape.