How do you make a 100-meter telescope that folds down to three meters so you can tuck it inside a space vehicle? How do you make a heart stent that folds out inside the human body? In each case, researchers have turned to masters of origami, the thousand-year-old art of paper folding.

This hour, a look at how paper folding went from a quaint, simple hobby to an extensive form of art that can achieve hundreds of intricate folds. Plus: the ways origami is used beyond the art world, in mathematics, science, and technology.

GUESTS:

• Erik Demaine: Professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Robert J. Lang: The author of co-author of more than 20 books on origami art and design

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Colin McEnroe, Betsy Kaplan, and Jonathan McNicol contributed to this show, which originally aired March 13, 2014.

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