Possibly lithography was used to avoid stress concentrations and kinking, which can potentially be troublesome in mechanically-tied knots. (Presumably, especia

Possibly lithography was used to avoid stress concentrations and kinking, which can potentially be troublesome in mechanically-tied knots. (Presumably, especially at that scale.) With respect to knotted and woven fabrics, there's quite a lot of interesting research in "3D-woven" fabrics for high-impact applications like body armor. 3D fabrics are pinned by fibers running through the weave top-to-bottom (Z axis) and are effectively macroscopically knotted. They're also commercially available: https://compositeenvisions.com/product/fiberglass-e-glass-3d-weave-60-152-4cm-54oz-1830gsm/ https://compositeenvisions.com/product/fiberglass-e-glass-3d... Interesting stuff, but still very niche and not always clearly superior to plain woven composite materials.