Christmas light knots untangled, sort of

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Scientists in San Diego have proved the theory that Christmas tree lights indeed tie themselves in knots while in storage.

Douglas Smith and Dorian Raymer of the University of California-San Diego published a paper this fall titled "Spontaneous Knotting of an Agitated String" that concluded that knots would form quite easily as strings are moved around.

The study was based on experiments using a washing-machine style bin that tumbled around pieces of loose string. The experiment was run more than 3,000 times using different sizes of string and bins, The San Diego Union-Tribune said Thursday.

While the research didn't offer much help in untangling strings of holiday bulbs, the results could be applied to research into DNA and its distinctive twisted "helix" shapes.