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HEART SURGERY AND THE ART OF PAPER FOLDING

   

      The Japanese art of paper folding is called origami.  It has moved from entertainment to science.  It is math in action.  One can make a bird, a frog, a sailboat or complicated and intricate objects.

     In 1970, Japanese astrophysicist Korya Miura invented his Miura map fold method.  Very large maps are folded and unfolded using his technique.  Here one shape is repeated over and over, with no gaps.  Normally crease pattern is a 'tiling of parallelograms'.  It opens and close very easily.

     The crease pattern on the paper is the blue print of the origami object.  A crease creates a valley or a mountain in the paper.  Origami follows certain math laws.

1. Colorobility
     One can colour any crease pattern with just two colours without ever having the same colour meeting".

2. Directions of fold:
        The directions of the folds at any vertex (corner) - the number of mountain folds, the number of valley folds -always differs by two.

3. No penetration:
     No matter how many times you try to stack folds and sheets, a sheet can never penetrate a fold.

4. Total angle:
     Every angle around the vertices comes out to 180 degrees.

REAL USES
 
 Dr. Miura map folding method is used to deploy large solar panel into outer space.  Think of each parallelogram as a solar cell, all of which are then connected by hinges.  The array can then fold up into small package to be put on a space satellite before being launched on a rocket.  Once in space it could be opened by a simple expansion rod without the help of human hands.

     Sometimes, coronary artery (an artery feeding the heart muscle) is narrowed by a build up of fatty deposits.  It can reduce blood flow causing chest pain.  A stent is a tiny wire mesh tube.  It is collapsed (folded) one and it is moved into the area of the blockage.  It unfolds, expands and holds the artery open.  Here origami techniques are tried and used.

     Fordable umbrella,  folded carton box, fordable staircase, fordable lens demonstrate origami principle.

    Origami is explored in Bio-Engineering to send the toxic medicine safely into the body. 
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