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\centerline{\bf Math 468}
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\centerline{Topics in Topology}
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\centerline{Prof.~Taylor}

This is a course in topological chemistry,
in particular the subject of stereoisomers.
These are long molecules which can be considered
as graphs and how the graph is embedded in 
three{--}space profoundly affects the chemical 
behavior of the compound.  
Examples range from limonene, which smells either like
lemon or like orange depending on the embedding, to
Thalidomide, which is a cure for morning sickness in one
embedding but causes severe birth defects in another.
There also are interesting problems involving DNA.

Since this is a mathematics course we will abstract chemistry
questions to questions about the embeddings of graphs
into three{--}space and develop techniques for distinguishing
such embeddings.
The book concentrates on distinguishing chiral embeddings 
from non{--}chiral ones, a central problem in 
knot theory and its generalizations to graphs.
This is an active area
of current mathematical research.

The text for the course is the book  
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``When Topology Meets Chemistry" by Erica Flapan 
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(http://www.maa.org/pubs/books/tpc.html). 
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Additional material will be supplied by the instructor.
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