![[A chrome trefoil knot is shown coming out of a tunnel, with futuristic circuitry reflected on its surface.]](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2020/10/blog-1-cover-image.jpg)
In 2016, three physicists, David Thouless, Duncan Haldane, and Mike Kosterlitz, won the Nobel prize in physics for their groundbreaking discoveries of topology in matter/materials. Although many people have heard of topology before, likely associating it with the more familiar term “topography,” the fundamental nature of topology remains relatively opaque to those outside of the fields of math and certain applied sciences.