Origami Science

mpark6288 writes: "Alright, so we all remember elementary school, and the endless paper cuts that we got from trying to learn some origami. Some how my crane was always a boat. But, as News Factor: Sci Tech states: 'The theorem is, you can make any shape, and there is an algorithm for folding the piece of paper,' stated MIT Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Erik Demaine said. Referencing applications of origami in robotic arm manipulation, bioinformatics, protein folding and molecular biology, Demaine said there is a multitude of possibilities from origami principles as simple as folding a square piece of paper in half and making one calculated cut. So who knows, those annoying little shuriken (throwing stars) that you made to throw at girls (eww cooties) could have been a major scientific breakthrough!"

Origami F-14

[Eagle7]

I have directions for folding an F-14 Tomcat from a square of paper. It flies great, and even has airfoils on the wings and control surfaces on the tail. You can see a picture of it here [origamido.com] - it's the blue one in the middle.

The model is by Micheal LaFosse (you can find books by him with instructions for the "Aero-gami" F-14), and he has some other amazing models on this [origamido.com]
site.

I know this is not completely on topic, but I thought it would be interesting to fellow /.'s, and when else will it be even close to on topic. ;)