  Novikov initiated the study of the algebraic properties of quadratic forms
over polynomial extensions by a far-reaching analogue of the Pontrjagin-Thom
transversality construction of a Seifert surface of a knot and the infinite
cyclic cover of the knot exterior. In this paper the analogy is applied to
explain the relationship between the Seifert forms over a ring with involution
and Blanchfield forms over the Laurent polynomial extension.
