Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
The fields of topology, chemistry, and molecular biology have each made tremendous advances in the past thirty years, and as a result, there are more and more potential ways that topological techniques can be used to understand molecular structures. In particular, there have recently been a number of conferences and special issues of journals devoted to research that is at the intersection of topology, chemistry, and molecular biology. Although this work is all quite exciting, it is often technically difficult to wade through for those outside of these specific interdisciplinary areas. With some effort, mathematicians are able to bring together various sources and make sense of these results. In my experience teaching undergraduates, I have found that topology students are frequently eager to learn about results in topology that can be applied to science; however, they have quite a bit of difficulty understanding the existing literature. Many chemists and molecular biologists would also like to learn about topological techniques that they could use. However, scientists generally do not have the topological background necessary to read these results carefully. In addition to research articles, expository versions of some of these topics have been published with the details omitted. Although this has enabled many people to get a sense of the types of results that have been obtained, there has been no topology text that is written at an appropriate level for mathematics students and scientists who want to learn the topology that is necessary to understand the details of the interdisciplinary work.
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- When Topology Meets ChemistryA Topological Look at Molecular Chirality, pp. xi - xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000