  Recent progress in string theory has led to a reformulation of quantum-group
polynomial invariants for knots and links into new polynomial invariants whose
coefficients can be understood in topological terms. We describe in detail how
to construct the new polynomials and we conjecture their general structure.
This leads to new conjectures on the algebraic structure of the quantum-group
polynomial invariants. We also describe the geometrical meaning of the
coefficients in terms of the enumerative geometry of Riemann surfaces with
boundaries in a certain Calabi-Yau threefold.
