Changing the World with Paper-Folding — Origami in Research and Science
There’s more to the beautiful art of origami than paper cranes and boats. Join Team Habbit as we explore the uses of origami outside classroom environments and hobbies.
While we’ve all seen origami artworks where thousands of tiny paper pieces are put together to make the most beautiful origami, the application of paper folding in fields outside of Arts and Crafts has resulted in some of the coolest origami ever.
From automobile designs to saving lives in medicine, the simple act of folding paper has helped human beings understand the dimensions and limitations of matter. Japanese origamist Akira Yoshizawa popularized origami on a global level and bridged the gap between artists and scientists by developing a picture-oriented instruction sheet that we use to this day.
Today, origami is used in many disciplines, including mathematics, engineering, and medicine. Making a three-dimensional object out of something flat and almost two-dimensional helps designers figure out how to fit large objects into a smaller space from which they can expand — essentially confining them temporarily but firmly to shape without the use of permanent adhesives. This approach to paper folding has helped diversify the uses of origami.
Let’s dive right into it.
Automobile Design — Airbags
Designing airbags is not an easy process — within a millisecond of impact with a dangerous crash, the airbag mechanism has to activate and release the inflated pouch and become rigid, but not so rigid as to damage the person it’s supposed to protect. Designers model the inflation of a shape that is people-sized by modeling three-dimensional polyhedrons from flat sheets, using folds. Robert Lang, a scientist turned origami artist, created an algorithm that can help computer models perfect the folding and storage of airbags inside vehicles.
Robotics — Self-Assembling Robots
Much like the robots you can see in Transformers, there are real-life automatons that can unfold from a flat state to remotely and autonomously assemble themselves into a fully functioning machine. The flat panels are connected by hinges and made of materials that are light and pliable like paper. The applications of such robots are numerous — they can be used in space travel, search-and-rescue missions, and exploring spaces in wildlife that were previously inaccessible to mankind.
Space Technology — Foldable Mirrors and Solar Panels
There’s only so much room in a spacecraft, but most space missions have many objectives it needs to execute — it’s not every day that we go to space. To compress large devices and objects so that they can fit into a small space, scientists use origami-type folding principles.
Robert Lang has helped design mirrors and solar panels that are used in space. The Miura fold, named after the Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura, is the most efficient way of designing such objects that require a lot of surface area once unfolded but can be fit into small storage space when necessary.
Surgery — Heart Stents
Oxford University researcher Zhong You has developed a heart stint that can contract to be small enough to fit through a catheter to reach the heart, reach the artery and inflate to open up any clogged space inside. The principle here is that of a ‘waterbomb base’, which we can see in those inflated origami boxes used for gifting and decoration.
Nanotechnology — DNA Nanobots
DNA is made of many tiny, folded component chemicals that are deeply intertwined with each other. Scientists have used the folding techniques in origami to recreate this foldable characteristic of DNA to create nanobots that can travel inside our body and diagnose possible pathologies. We have explored the insides of smaller bugs like cockroaches using these nanobots.
Architecture — Shading and Cladding
Origami has been incorporated into the design of easy-to-assemble and transportable houses. Origami folding techniques have also come in handy while designing adjustable screens and walls that let light in through one shape but are more opaque in another formation. These self-shading windows can help us save a lot of energy in the long run and make for some of the coolest origami ever.
Ophthalmology — Retinal Implants
Age-related degeneration of tissues in the eye can cause damage to the photoreceptors in the retina. Sergio Pellegrino, a Cal Tech researcher, is developing a retinal implant that can be built at a lower cost, that can contain many electrodes near the retina, and is adaptable to a variety of retina sizes — built with the help of origami-inspired folding techniques!
Clearly, there’s more to origami than most people think. If you feel inspired to pick up paper folding as a hobby, check out Habbit’s Origami Workshops and courses, taught by one of the famous origamists in India, Aditi Anuj. Aditi has helped design famous origami installations, including the one we see in Netflix’s Sacred Games. Sign up today to learn more about all types of origami and how you can make the most stunning things from small pieces of paper.