Skip to comments.
Origami May Be an Art, but Nature Got There First
NY Times ^
| March 22, 2005
| NA
Posted on 03/22/2005 6:27:46 PM PST by neverdem
In 1980, a Japanese scientist, Dr. Koryo Miura, developed a pattern of peaks and valleys that allows a map to be unfolded all at once, with one pull of a corner. In introducing his method, Dr. Miura wrote that his "experience on deployable space structures and origami science" led him to look for a better way to fold a map.
The result of his work, the Miura-ori origami pattern, has indeed been used for solar arrays as well as maps.
Last week, in the journal Science, Dr. Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan of Harvard reported that nature itself has an origami trick or two, including the Miura-ori pattern. His analysis suggested that the nature of the skin of a leaf and its supporting framework could lead to the same efficient folding that Dr. Miura developed.
The pattern is found in wings, flower petals and leaves like the one below, which starts out as a folded Miura-ori pattern and then unfolds to display how, as Dr. Mahadevan writes, "the buckles tilt into a zigzag pattern separated by kinks."
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: art; cary; flowers; origami; plants; science
1
posted on
03/22/2005 6:27:47 PM PST
by
neverdem
To: Holly_P
2
posted on
03/22/2005 6:28:52 PM PST
by
neverdem
(May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
To: El Gato; JudyB1938; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; ..
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
3
posted on
03/22/2005 6:30:07 PM PST
by
neverdem
(May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
To: neverdem
"allows a map to be unfolded all at once, with one pull of a corner."
Big deal! I'll be impressed when some one invents a map that will refold itself with one push of a corner.
4
posted on
03/22/2005 7:22:10 PM PST
by
Farmerbob
(Short sighted people are always walking into walls.)
To: Farmerbob
There's just no making some people happy...
5
posted on
03/22/2005 8:00:09 PM PST
by
null and void
(Do your part to save Social Security. Die.)
To: neverdem
To: Hillarys Gate Cult
LOL, I liked the question and answer section!!
7
posted on
03/22/2005 8:58:12 PM PST
by
potlatch
(Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
To: Farmerbob
LOL. As soon as I read "Big deal", I knew what the rest said without looking.
8
posted on
03/22/2005 9:04:24 PM PST
by
tang-soo
(Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks - Read Daniel Chapter 9)
To: neverdem
9
posted on
03/22/2005 10:07:55 PM PST
by
LiteKeeper
(The radical secularization of America is happening)
To: neverdem
I'll have to show this to our daughter. She does lovely origami! In fact, for her Girl Scout Silver Award project, she, for the most part, but with the help of other Girl Scouts and leaders in her troop, folded 1000 paper cranes to make a chain to send to the Sadako Memorial in Hiroshima.
She's not a peacenik or anything, she just thought the idea of sending the chain to be displayed at the Memorial was interesting and it had something to do with her love of origami.
10
posted on
03/22/2005 10:25:55 PM PST
by
SuziQ
To: All
11
posted on
03/22/2005 10:38:56 PM PST
by
neverdem
(May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
To: neverdem
Look at the picture and look at an aerial view of mountain ranges. Same thing.
12
posted on
03/22/2005 11:03:45 PM PST
by
UCANSEE2
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson
