Origami is yielding new applications in spacecraft, architecture, and medicine

The NASA original printable of the star shade is better. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/space-origami-mak...

The lab I used to work at is deep in origami-inspired engineering: https://www.compliantmechanisms.byu.edu/

They have resources for anyone wanting to learn more.

Paper is effectively dimensionless on one dimension, yet folding allows it to attain that missing dimension. Origami is a kind of alchemy that is underappreciated. We think nothing of a paper shopping bag increasing in volume by 100x with a simple motion.

Briefly mentioned in the article is Erik Demaine (http://erikdemaine.org/).

You can find a lot of resources on his website among which lectures on the topic of Origami folding and algorithms. http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.849/fall20/lectures/

The kayak mentioned in the article was new to me. Very cool. Checking out their site, it appears that, at least one of the kayaks, folds down to roughly 1/6 its "size" (looking at it from above in planform).

The bow and stern each fold in toward the center of the kayak — about 1/3 of the way each. Then the whole thing folds in half along the centerline.

From the same source (and also featured on the BBC’s Winterwatch last night), the folding of earwig wings: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/earwig-or...

I have worked on deployable structures of scale using some of the principles of origami. The main obstacle to making successful structures that fold or deploy is that precision is very important, because once you have large joints in different planes things like deflection and fabrication tolerances become critical especially if you want to do more than a single unfold or deployment. A great book by Lang is "Twists Tilings and Tesselations" (2018) that goes over the mathematics of origami and folds. The Hoberman sphere works fine as a small toy, but imagine it built up to a sphere of size not in zero gravity and having to be open and closed several times. Engineering challenges that could lead to some pretty nifty deployable buildings on the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

Origami is one of those subjects that hits the aesthetic button as well as the technical button .. it forms the roots of a means of manifesting "programmable matter" which is long overdue for a bit of crazy technological innovation.

Every now and then I go through a phase of "catching up with the state of the origami art" and it is always rewarding to see the progress made by academics and scientists alike .. I find Computational Origami utterly fascinating, personally:

https://langorigami.com/article/computational-origami/

Heart valve replacement too, https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/transcatheter-ao...

Concept of a giant, origami space telescope using a Fresnel lens:

https://langorigami.com/article/eyeglass-telescope/

When will we see origami inspired hands and fingers?

Serious "Three Body Problem" vibes here. The Chinese-language TV show (available to stream for free on YouTube) is surprisingly faithful to the novel, so far.

The techniques for folding a very large antenna to fit into a small space were (are?) used to launch US intelligence-gathering satellites, like Trumpet[1]. For some examples of how they are folded, see https://spp.fas.org/military/program/sigint/shrouds.htm

1 https://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/trumpet.htm