Between the Folds

If you have Netflix (or can request videos from your local library), do yourself a favor and watch Between the Folds.  It's a documentary on origami.

It's an extremely well-done film and totally absorbing.  The things people can do with one square of paper, no gluing and no cutting, are absolutely amazing.  The film also effectively shows how origami bridges the boundaries between art, mathematics, and science.

What's the best way to fold an airbag or a mylar structure that is launched into orbit and then unfolds?  Ask someone who does origami.  How can we understand the folding of proteins?  Ask a MacArthur grant genius, homeschooled (yay!), origami-affecianado, MIT math professor.

I've found that Dr. Demaine has freely-available video lectures from classes like Geometric Folding Algorithms: Linkages, Origami, Polyhedra.  Looks interesting.