The Big Idea

Published: September 15, 2009

Fold Everything

Anything can be made with origami—from birds and bugs to
stents and space telescopes. It’s just a matter of math.

One sheet, no cuts: Even in its simplest form, origami, the art of paper folding, generates enchantment. Since the earliest known manual, A Thousand Cranes, was published in Japan in 1797, flocks of paper birds have alighted on countless windowsills. But these days, the ancient art is being revitalized by another form of expression: math. By describing their work mathematically and modeling it with computers, origamists have jumped from paper to metal and plastic and from toy to technology. Folded creations have flown in space; someday one may lodge in your artery.