Nature:
Flexible rings that fold up on themselves into saddle shapes or
stacks of interlinked loops are most recognizable in such
everyday items as pop-up tents and laundry baskets. A group of
researchers led by Alain Jonas of the Catholic University of
Leuven in Belgium has determined that the way these rings
behave depends on a single characteristic known as
overcurvature, or how much more curved the ring is than a flat
circle of the same circumference. By modeling overcurvature,
the researchers were able to predict what shape a given ring
would take and the path it would take to get there, which
depends on how much energy was applied. A three-ring stack of
interlocked loops required more energy at the start, but
settled into position much more easily than forms that required
less energy at the start. Jonas believes that his team's
findings regarding overcurvature may also apply to molecular
rings such as plasmids or various polymers.
