02 . 202 3 FO HOW O L RIGAMI IS RE D SHAPING OUR E WORLD D THE FUTURE IS FO HOW O L RIGAMI IS RE D SHAPING OUR E WORLD D THE FUTURE IS
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 THE BIG IDEA These Boots Were Made ... of What? Investigating whether an advertised item is made from protected wildlife isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. BY DINA FINE MARON DECODER The Dawn of Jaws New fossil discoveries in China provide clues to a key moment in vertebrate evolution. BY MICHAEL GRESHKO From Coop to Catwalk In the Dutch countryside, a portrait photographer turns his lens to poultry and finds the animals to be “walking pieces of art.” PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEX TEN NAPEL P R O O F E X P L O R E 32CAPTURED Moon Views in Rainbow Hues Orange, bronze, tan, even purple—Earth’s atmosphere colors how we see the moon. BY LIZ KRUESI CLOSER LOOK Monsters of Spring Fearsome creatures scare away winter in a Slovenian tradition. BY NOAH CHARNEY PHOTOGRAPHS BY CIRIL JAZBEK ALSO Freaky Fish Face-Off Longest-Tongued Moth On the Cover Origami folds let the inner disk of NASA’s starshade prototype wrap into a cylinder for launch, then unfurl to block starlight reaching a space telescope. CRAIG CUTLER C O N T E N T S ALSO Rock Climbing in Rio Ocean Floor Exploration F U R T H E R
F E A T U R E S Made From Mud In West Africa, a traditional building material is back, helping make modern edifices cool. BY PETER SCHWARTZSTEIN P H OTO G R A P H S BY MO I S E S S AMA N ........P. 108 ABOVE: Tsukimi Ayano, 72, crafts a new doll to commemorate the residents of her hometown of Nagoro, Japan. The shrinking hamlet has hundreds of dolls but just 25 inhabitants. A New Old Age Having one of the world’s oldest populations means having to change—everything. BY S A R A H LU BMA N P H OTO G R A P H S BY N O R IKO H AYA S H I .......P. 58 What’s Not to Love? Sea otters seem to be doing swimmingly, but it’s complicated. BY C Y N T H I A G O R N E Y P H OTO G R A P H S BY R A L P H PAC E A N D KI L I I I Y Ü YA N ...............P. 84 The Future Is Folded Origami is delicate and decorative, yes, but powerful and practical? As art is adapted to serve science, the intricate patterns of origami are being harnessed to create items such as robotic arms, highly effective face masks, and solar arrays to unfurl in space. BY MAYA WE I- H A A S P H OTO G R A P H S BY C R A I G C U T L E R ............P. 34 F E B R U A R Y | C O N T E N T S
Animal Adaptations, HumanIngenuity how origami—which most of us think of as an art form or a craft—is beginning to power important advances in everything from space exploration to robotics andmedicine.Thanks tosome very creative thinkers, a centuries-old approach to manipulating matter is now taking us to new heights. What a triumph of human ingenuity. We hope you enjoy the issue. WHEN I WAS a young boy, my favorite stuffed toy was a floppy-necked bear named Bearby, crocheted for me by my aunt Lori. And my second favorite was a plush sea otter. Aswe all know, sea otters aredeeply, relentlessly cute. No doubt attracted first by their cuddly appearance,I soon became fascinated with their story. These otters were hunted nearly to extinctionfor their fur inthe 1700s and 1800s, along the Pacific Ocean coasts of Japan, Russia, and North America. During my childhood, sea otters were protected, buttheir comeback was not assured, despite a variety of attempts to help them on their way. As Cynthia Gorney reports and RalphPace and KiliiiYüyandocument in stunning photographs for this issue (“What’s Not to Love?”), although sea otters have by no means rebounded to their pre-18th-century levels, their population is healthier today than it has been for 200 years. And while their undeniably adorable appearance and antics have made them, in our day and age, darlings of social media, these tough and adaptable creatures with enormous appetites are also a keystone species deemed critical to their ecosystems. As such, they present a perfect case study for the sometimes complicated ramifications of successful conservation: What is the impact on the environment, and all living things (including people) that depend on it, whena speciesnearlydisappears—and then comes back? I was not one of those kids who played around with origami, but I have long appreciated the skill and beauty of it. If you do too, you won’t want to miss this month’s cover story, “The Future Is Folded.” It explores Inspired by origami’s magic ball pattern, this silicone rubber figure looks like art—and works like an artificial muscle as part of a multipurpose gripping device. Encasing the shape in a flexible membrane and applying a vacuum causes the gripper to contract around an object placed in its center, gently but firmly grasping even delicate or relatively heavy items. FROM OTTERS TO ORIGAMI F R O M T H E E D I T O R | F E B R U A R Y B Y N A T H A N L U M P P H O T O G R A P H B Y C R A I G C U T L E R
Researchers want to know: Have you seen this whale? Roughly 71 percent ofthe Earth’s surface is ocean, yet scientists have only explored five percent ofthat. As researchers delve into bigger projects in harderto-reach locations,they’re relying more on citizen scientists to help conductlong-term environmental research. This is particularly important when it comes to marine environments, which can be difficultto research year-round because of cost and accessibility. The nonprofit Whale and Dolphin Conservation conducted a nine-year observational study of bottlenose dolphins in Scotland’s Moray Firth. As part ofthis “Shorewatch” project, volunteers scanned the waters for ten minutes every daytime hour to record dolphin sightings. In total, citizen scientists collected 70,000 surveys (equalto roughly 12,000 hours of work). This wealth of data helps scientists understand the patterns and behaviours of Scotland’s coastal species, which in turn enables them to suggest ways to protect wildlife. Citizen scientists’ observations can also serve as an early warning for oceanic changes on migration routes that research boats with limited resources might miss. In Hawaii, citizen scientists with the Pacific Whale Foundation’s “Great Whale Count” project reported a five percent increase in humpback whales. Happywhale, a global citizen science project, records whale sightings with the goal of establishing a better understanding of these creatures. Happywhale uses image recognition software to match crowd-sourced Volunteers worldwide are helping scientists gainadeeper understanding of oceanlife. Credit: Jan Hvizdal. A 9-year-long wildlife survey utilised citizen scientists to help better understand Scotland’s coastal species.
This is paid content. This content does not necessarily reflect the views of National Geographic or its editorial staff. whale photos against a database ofthousands of whales. Citizen scientists who participate can learn about whale migration patterns as others upload photos ofthe same whale. ORCA, a UK whale and dolphin conservation charity, submitted its photo library to Happywhale’s data center.In April 2022, a science coordinator spotted a humpback whale that was unknown to scientists atthe time—which she only realized after she submitted itto the Happywhale catalog to find further information. Citizen scientist programs are in demand on expedition cruises, where one ofthe main thrills is scanning the waves for wildlife. Hurtigruten Expeditions partners with several institutions to run citizen scientist programs on each ship. The company’s onboard Science & Education Program Credit: YuriMatisseChoufour. Anyone can assistin wildlife understanding and conservation by becoming a citizen scientist—spotting animals for research while on holiday. Credit: YuriMatisseChoufour. Hurtigruten partners with several institutions to bring scientists along to help passengers spot wildlife and record invaluable data. aims to increase guest knowledge and interestin the areas they’re sailing to. Each expedition ship has its own dedicated science center, and Hurtigruten Expeditions partners with both Happywhale and ORCA to help collect data. On the MS Maud and MS Otto Sverdrup, which have itineraries through Norway,the British Isles, and the Arctic, expert ORCA ocean conservationists join the expedition teams and conduct onboard lectures, workshops, and accompany shore excursions. Ocean conservationists also help travellers spot wildlife and identify popular spots for whales and dolphins while collecting data. Hurtigruten Foundation funds other citizen scientistinitiatives on-board as well, like the collection and extraction of environmental DNA (eDNA)from water samples in whale zones in Antarctica. Guests can actively participate in severaltypes of scientific data collection while whale watching in small expedition boats. When ecotourists getinvolved in environmental initiatives,they can provide invaluable data on species and environments by being in the right place atthe righttime. Aside from collecting data, sharing observations, and affecting positive environmental change, participating in citizen science projects helps foster a unique type of environmental stewardship.
FROM COOP TO CATWALK N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C VO L . 2 4 3 N O . 2 P R O O F When a portrait photographer shifted his focus to poultry, he found his subjects to be coy, funny, and surprisingly similar to humans. LO O K ING AT THE EARTH FROM EVERY P OS SIBLE ANGLE P H O T O G R A P H S B Y A L E X T E N N A P E L In the Netherlands, Alex ten Napel makes miniature runways in barns and backyards to capture the essence of chickens such as this Polish rooster. “I consider them walking pieces of art,” he says. 6 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
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P R O O F Compared with people, chickens like the Polish hens above and below right are quite patient models, ten Napel says. 8 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
Scientists think humans first domesticated chickens between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago. Polish roosters and other showy chickens are bred for competition, not consumption. F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3 9
P R O O F Ten Napel first came face-to-face with a chicken while he was camping in the Pyrenees Mountains about 10 years ago. He felt an immediate connection to the species, which then became his main photographic muse. 10 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
The European Association of Poultry, Pigeon, Cage Bird, Rabbit, and Cavy Breeders recognizes more than a hundred breeds of chickens, from the Polish, at left and above, to the Brabanter and the Dutch bantam. F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3 11
THE BACKSTORY W I T H H I S P O RT R A I T S , P H O T O G R A P H E R A L E X T E N N A P E L A I M S T O S H O W T H E P E R S O N A L I T I E S O F P O U LT RY. A C H I C K E N “ I S N OT J U ST an animal that gives us eggs,” says Alex ten Napel, who’s been roaming his home country of the Netherlands in search of farm fowl since 2014. Taking inspiration from Melchior d’Hondecoeter, a 17th-century Dutch artist known for his work with birds, ten Napel uses lighting, backdrops, and an elevated, catwalk-like stage to bring chickens out of the coop and into an entirely new context. “What I hope you see in the photos is that chickens canbe proud beings or funny beings,” he says. “They can be like gymnasts or ballerinas. Not what most people think of when you talk about chickens.” While each animal has different characteristics,ten Napel has noticed the emergence of some patterns throughout his travels. Roosters, or male chickens, tend to be large, visually striking, and imposing, he says. But it’s the females ten Napel finds himself drawn toward. “I have a heartfor the hens. They’re so vulnerable,” he says. “They move me in a way that I want to protect them.” A specialistinportrait photography, ten Napelfocused on people—usually childrenandolder adults—for 25 years. The chickens, he says, have reignited his passion for this type of photography. “I can’t direct them. I have to be patient and feel how they will show themselves,”he adds. “Everything they give you is a gift.” Though ten Napel has occasionally tried to train his lens on other subjects since falling for fowl, nothing else seems to capture his interest so completely. “This year I went back to the breeders,” he says, “and I’m shooting the next series until, well, I can’t photographanymore.” —JASON BITTEL P R O O F On his bird-friendly runway, ten Napel coaxes a model to strut its stuff for the camera. PHOTO: WIM DIEPENBROEK
N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C E X P L O R E I L LU M I N AT I N G T H E M YST E R I E S —A N D WO N D E R S —A L L A RO U N D US E V E RY DAY THE S IX-P O UND B OX arrived on a steamy June day, hot from its ride in the delivery van. The label said BOOT BARN in capital letters, and when I opened the package, the oaky scent of leather enveloped me. The lower half of the boots had a distinct wrinkly pattern that was rough to the touch. Stamped inside the boots’ shaft: “genuine elephant leather.” At a list price of $799.99, they’d been advertised online as El Dorado Men’s Brass Indian Elephant Exotic Boots. Thatis, boots purportedly made from an endangered Asian elephant. After four years as a reporter for Wildlife Watch, an investigative project funded by the National Geographic Society, I knew there was a market for just about any exotic species, from leeches to rare succulents.I’d become difficultto shock. But selling Asian (or “Indian”) elephant boots? That sounded unprecedented—andpotentiallyunlawfulunder the Convention on International Trade in Endangered B Y D I N A F I N E M A R O N SELLING ITEMS MADE FROM PROTECTED WILDLIFE MAY BE UNLAWFUL— BUT AS NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DISCOVERED, THAT’S HARD TO PROVE. TheseBootsWere Made...ofWhat? V O L . 2 4 3 N O . 2 IN T H I S S ECTI O N Farewell, Fatbergs Jaws’ Evolution The Hikes of Rio Moons of Many Hues F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3 15
EE MX P B L AORRKE | T H E B I G I D E A | T H E B I G I D E A lab testing Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), according to John Scanlon. From 2010 to 2018 Scanlon was secretary-general of CITES, which regulates the global wildlife trade. Asian and African elephants are endangered animals. How could Boot Barn, a major U.S. retailer, be selling these boots? Sobegananinquiry thatinvolvedmonths ofinterviews, research in trade and financial records, innovative materials analysis, and any number of dead ends.Whatwelearned,finally,wasahardbutvaluable lesson:Efforts tomonitorcompliancewithregulations that govern wildlife products can be stymied by the difficulties of proving the items’ provenance. ONLY 400,000 AFRICAN elephants and 50,000 Asian elephants are leftin the wild. Most Asian elephants are found in India and have what could be called a biological advantage over their Africancounterparts: More often than not, they are tuskless. That helps shield them from the ivory trade, which has driven the slaughter of African elephants. Among Asian elephants, only males can grow tusks, and relatively few develop them. The chiefthreattoAsianelephants still comes from people, by way of habitat loss and human-animal conflict on farms and other land. Increasingly, the trade inelephant skinhas alsobecome aproblem;the skinis sometimesused tomake beadswornfor good luck in Myanmar and China. But there hadn’t been reports of Asian elephant boots—so National Geographic setouttodiscover ifBootBarn’sbootsactually containedelephant skin(and,if so,howtheycouldbe sold by a major U.S. retailer). I talked to wildlife and trade lawexperts,I scouredCITES records looking for legal elephant-skinshipments, andIidentifiedwhich companymade the boots—but beyondthat, answers were hard to find. In the hope of determining the boots’ origin, National Geographic bought a pair to send for DNA testing. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before the purchase, I’d called and emailed Boot Barn for weeks, asking about the boots and their sourcing. I got no response to almost a dozen emails, phone calls, and LinkedIn messages addressed to the retailer’s chief financial officer, communications office, and people listed as press and investor relations contacts.I also called customer service and reached a representative who said she’d look into it and call me back; Ineverheardfromher.The last requestfor comment, T H E T R A D E I N E L E P H A N T S K I N S H A S B E C O M E A P R O B L E M , B U T T H E R E H A D N ’ T B E E N P R E V I O U S R E P O R T S O F A S I A N E L E P H A N T B O O T S . S O N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C B O U G H T A P A I R T O S E N D F O R D N A T E S T I N G . At biologist Sam Wasser’s University of Washington lab, researchers had successfully identified elephant ivory origins using DNA analysis. To attempt the same with leather from Boot Barn’s boots, they cut small samples and ripped them into shreds with a razor blade—a low-tech way to get as much surface area as possible, which increases the chances of finding DNA. They put the samples into 16 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
Boot Barn advertises Brass Indian Elephant Exotic Boots as made from elephant leather. Since global sales of Asian elephant skins would potentially be unlawful, we tried to confirm the boots’ provenance through DNA analysis. Strips cut from a boot were tested at a University of Washington lab. PHOTOS: REBECCA HALE, NGM STAFF chemicals that break cell walls apart, basically turning the shreds into a brown sludge that wildlife genetics lab manager Zofia Kaliszewska described as “gross and pulpy.” They spent about a week incubating the sample, adding chemicals, trying to find any usable DNA. But eventually, their computer spit out DNA results for only their control samples—none for the Boot Barn samples. — D FM F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3 17
E X P L O R E | T H E B I G I D E A PHOTO: BRENT STIRTON addressed to Boot Barn’s president and chief executive officer, was sentin the weeks before this article went to press. That request received no response. Boot Barn’s advertisement said the boots were made by a company called El Dorado. By searching for El Dorado’s patent records and then Boot Barn’s publicfinancial disclosures to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,I discovered that El Dorado is an “exclusive brand” of Boot Barn Holdings,Inc.; Boot Barn’s public website lists El Dorado as one of the boot brands the retailer has created. I AS K ED J O NATHAN KO LBY, a National Geographic Explorer who used to work as a wildlife inspector,to examine the boot photograph in the advertisement. He saidthematerialdidlooklike real elephantleather he’d seen. Teresa Telecky, a zoologist and the vice president of the wildlife department at Humane Society International, said the same. “I’venever seen Asian elephant–skin boots for sale,” she told me. When I asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service— whichpolicesU.S. companies’trade inproducts from protectedspecies—aboutthe rules for elephant skin, the responsewas a statement: “As a resultoftheAsian elephant’sprotectionstatus, commercialimport and subsequent sale of skins couldonlybe legalpursuant to the antique exception of the Endangered Species Act.” The antique exception says products from protected species can be imported and sold—ifthey areatleastahundredyearsold.AsimilarCITESexceptionallows globaltradeofproducts thatdate tobefore the animalwasplacedonitsbannedlist—intheAsian elephant’s case, that happened in 1975. Even then, global sales of the product would have to be noted in CITES trade records, which are public. When I searched those records, no shipments of Asian elephant skins seemed to line up as a potential source. Another grim possibility: What if the skins had come fromcaptive elephants intheU.S.,perhaps sold offby one ofthe country’s numerous roadside zoos? Telecky noted it would still be illegal to sell them across state lines under theEndangered Species Act. Dan Ashe, president and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, had another theory about the boots’ origin. He suggested thatifthe boots were genuinely elephant skin, it might have come from a recent U.S. import of African elephant–skin pieces fromZimbabwe.ThoughtradeinAsianelephantparts isprohibitedunderCITES,there’s a legal carve-outfor the trade inelephanthides fromfour Africannations that have relatively stable elephant populations: Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. To explore the question Ashe raised—might Boot Barn’s “Indian” boots have been made from African elephant?—I called Sam Wasser at the University of Washington. He directs a lab that has successfully tracedthe origins of elephantivoryusingDNA analysis.Ifweprovidedtheboots, couldhis teamdetermine whether they’re elephant—and if so, which species? Wasser saidthey’dtrybut couldn’t guarantee thatthe leather-tanningprocesshadleftusablenuclearDNA. After the boots arrived at my house on that hot June day,I shipped them toWasser’s lab. Samples of the leatherwerepreparedandtested(seepages 16-17), butnonuclear DNA was found.Wildlife genetics lab manager Zofia Kaliszewska said the DNA could be absentbecause“tanninshadkilledeverything”during processing—or because it truly wasn’t elephant. In a last-ditch effort, Kaliszewska had the lab look for mitochondrialDNA,whichmighthave survivedeven if the nuclear DNA they’d hoped to find had been destroyed.ThatmtDNAcouldn’tidentifyanelephant species,butitmightatleasttellus if elephant skinwas present at all. The lab team then spent several days looking for mtDNA.It struck outthere too. S O AFTER AL L the time, money, and effort, we still couldn’t determine the boots’ provenance. WasBoot Barnmaking andsellingboots legallyor illegallyfrom Asian elephants? Or making boots legally or illegally from African elephants and misrepresenting them? Or were these boots not made from elephant at all? Here’s what we can say: Our investigation of the boots’ origin gives a glimpse of the obstacles that wildlife law enforcement, regulatory, and trade agencies face in monitoring online sellers of wildlife goods. As hard as these groups may work, they’re likely outgunned on the internet, a global hub in the multimillion-dollar black marketfor exotic animals and animal products—a key reason Wildlife Watch was founded at National Geographic. Asmonthspassed,I continuedtowatchBootBarn’s website. By the time this article went to press, the company seemed eager to move its elephantleather boots. They were advertised on sale, “34% off.” j Dina Fine Maron is a reporterforWildlifeWatch, ourinvestigative reporting project focused on wildlife crime and exploitation. It’s supported by the National Geographic Society. Asian elephants (left) are about eight times as rare as their African cousins. They’re also smaller, have rounded ears and an extra toenail, and more often are tuskless. They employ their entire trunks to lift objects, while African elephants have two trunk tips for such tasks. — D FM Know the Species
E X P L O R E | B R E A K T H R O U G H S D I S PAT C H E S F R O M T H E F R O N T L I N E S O F S C I E N C E A N D I N N O VAT I O N ANIMAL BEHAVIOR LIP-SMACKING FACE-OFFS THESE FREAKY FISH MAY OPEN WIDE TO FLAUNT COLORFUL MAWS, WARN OFF RIVALS, AND DETER MOUTH-TO-MOUTH COMBAT. Special jawbones on sarcastic fringeheads (Neoclinus blanchardi) letthefishopentheirmaws andflare their giantjaws inawide gape, to showtheirmouths’psychedelic colors.Ithadn’t beenclearwhy the speciesdevelopedsuchwildyaps: “Theymighthave evolvedto have some specialfunction,” says Watcharapong Hongjamrassilp, abiologist atChulalongkornUniversity inBangkok anda National Geographic Explorer. Because males sport bigger, more colorful mouths than females, Hongjamrassilp’s team wondered if males gapetodazzlefemales,orperhaps tocompeteor communicatewith othermales. Sothe teamstagedfishshowdowns, as reportedinthe journalEcology.Whentwomaleswereplacedina tankwhere only onecouldoccupyashellasshelter,theshelldwellerwentfull-ongape attheotherfish’s approachinsome 70percentof encounters.Then the interloper retreated or the males engaged in mouth-to-mouth combat,whichthe biggerfishusuallywon.Big jawsmay advertise bodysizetodeterfights, researchers say.Gapingtoseekmateswasn’t observed in the study; males appear to court with headshaking motions instead of with theirflashy mouths. —CAROLYN WI LKE EVOLUTION Bats foiled by moth Darwin imagined? In 1862, when Charles Darwin beheld a Madagascan orchid with a nectar tube nearly a foot long, he deduced that a compatible pollinator must exist. Four decades later, scientists found it— Xanthopan praedicta, a hawk moth with the longest recorded tongue of any insect. Now a study by National Geographic Explorer Juliette Rubin has found another adaptation: When Rubin played bat echolocation calls near captive male moths, they rubbed their genitalia against their abdomen, creating ultrasonic noise that would likely jam bat sonar. — PATRICIA EDMONDS A solid solution for disposal No more pouring used cooking oil down the drain, ultimately to form fatbergs in the sewer. For sale online, plant-based “oil solidifier” powders use the process of oleogelation to turn the sizzling contents of a skillet into a congealed disk you can toss out with the organic trash. — P E PHOTOS (FROM TOP): REBECCA HALE, NGM STAFF; WATCHARAPONG HONGJAMRASSILP; JOËL MINET
This scientist is on a mission to map the world’s oceans, centimeter by centimeter. About a decade ago, when Ved Chirayath learned that more than 90 percent of the planet’s seafloor remained unexplored, he was stunned.It was a stark contrastto the detailed maps of Mars and the moon he’d seen as an engineering graduate student developing devices to observe celestial bodies. Chirayath decided to apply techniques from space exploration to begin imaging the ocean. Baseline maps are vital, he says, because if we don’t know what’s there, we won’t know how to protect it. Therewerebigchallenges:Sonar,commonlyusedto gatherdata fromlarge swaths ofthe ocean, can’tprovide high resolution, while satellite images can’t penetrate ocean depths and are distorted by waves. VED CHIRAYATH B Y P R I Y A N K A R U N W A L P H O T O G R A P H B Y R E B E C C A H A L E E X P L O R E INNOVATOR So the University of Miami professor and National Geographic Explorer created FluidCam, equipped witha specializeddigital camera andsoftware to“see” throughwater,andMiDAR,whichaddshigh-intensity light.These tools, oftencarriedby adrone (pictured), arehelpinghis teammapseafeatures tothecentimeter inplaces suchas Guam. Since 2020, citizenscientists havelentahandbyplayingtheNeMO-Netvideogame to spot coral reefs in a virtual ocean made from the images.Thedatawillbeusedtotrainsupercomputers that will one day map reefs around the globe. j The National Geographic Society has funded the work of Ved Chirayath since 2021. Learn more about its support of Explorers at natgeo.com/impact.
E X P L O R E | D E C O D E R Qianodus duplicis Scientists had to dissolve 660 pounds of rock to find 23 tooth whorls (inset), the oldest of their kind yet discovered. Xiushanosteus mirabilis The fish, whose head (inset) bore numerous armor plates, belonged to a group called the placoderms. New fossil discoveries from China shine light on a pivotal moment of evolution: the arrival of the first vertebrates with honest-to-goodness jaws. O NE O F THE most critical steps in the evolution of vertebrate life—even bigger than our aquatic forebears’ first waddles onto land—was the evolution ofthe jaw. From biting food to vocalizing,the jaw is essentialto the survival of 99.8 percent of living vertebrates, including us humans. Of the jawless fish that once abounded in Earth’s ancient seas, only lampreys and hagfish remain today. The rich story chronicling the rise of gnathostomes, also known as jawed vertebrates, has long been missing the firstfew pages. But now rocks in China have yielded the oldest known complete skeletons and teethof gnathostomes ever found. In four studies recently published in the journal Nature, scientists led by Chinese paleontologist Min Zhu described fossil menageries from two rock formations—436 million and 439 million years old, respectively— in southern China, all within some 60 miles of the town of Yongdong. Though the fossils are tiny—inchlong skeletons andwhorls ofteethonly fractions of inches across—they’re packed with anatomical detail and begin to fill a gap in the fossil record. Living vertebrates’ DNA suggests that the earliest jawed vertebrates had arisen by no later than 450 million years ago, but their oldest skeletons had topped out at 425millionyears old until the new fossils. Their discovery has given humans an impressive evolutionary legacy to chew on. j B Y M I C H A E L G R E S H K O 24 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
NGM MAPS. PHOTOS: INSTITUTE OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY AND PALEOANTHROPOLOGY, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (FOSSILS); COURTESY PALEOVISLAB, IVPP NICE STUDIOS (RENDERINGS) Shenacanthus vermiformis The species is named in part after its armor plates’ distinctive surface ridges (inset), which resemble worms. D I SC OVERY Fish fossil fields LO CATI O N Guizhou Province and Chongqing municipality, within about 60 miles of Yongdong D I STINCTI O N Rock formations in the regions contain the oldest known complete skeletons and teeth of jawed vertebrates. TAIWAN C H I N A Yongdong Fossil sites Fanjingshania renovata Fin spines (inset) helped identify this inches-long fish; though cartilaginous, it shed its scales as bony fish did. F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3 25
IN WE STERN S LOVENIA , two hours from Ljubljana, the Soča River cuts throughthehills around a cluster of storybook villages, in a region where the Julian Alps meetthe Italian border. But on this late winter morning, a parade of monsters is gathering on the outskirts of the town of Ukanje (pictured above). It’s part of Pust (pronounced Poost), Slovenia’s version of Carnival, with roots in pre-Christian ritual. This traditional pre-Lenten celebration has evolved and adapted through the centuries, attimes in response to church leaders and, in later years, a socialist regime. Butit has always retained its spirit of seasonal rebirth. Today Pust is one of Slovenia’s biggest cultural events. Festivalgoers dress up in elaborate, handmade costumes and masks, some wearing belts of cowbells that clatter as they traipse through town— allthe better to scare away any vestiges ofwinter and clear the way for spring. “Pustis one ofthe oldest rituals,” says JanezBogataj, a Slovenianethnographer. “It goes back far before the Christian era.” Each hamlet and townfiercely champions its own version and name ofthe festival. Kurentovanje Pust, in Ptuj, is probably the country’s mostfamous, with monsters called kurenti attracting big crowds to the AN ANCIENT TRADITION IN SLOVENIA HAS REVIVED S OME OF ITS FORG OT TEN MA SKED CREATURES. MONSTERS OF SPRING During the Slovenian festival of Pust, costumed revelers chase out winter and usher in a season of renewal. B Y N O A H C H A R N E Y P H O T O G R A P H S B Y C I R I L J A Z B E C E X P L O R E | C L O S E R L O O K
NGM MAPS Villagers in Drežniške Ravne dress up as Pustje (left), horned creatures whose roots can be traced to pre-Christian rituals. In Britof (right), a Pust procession heads out from the hamlet’s church. Traditions vary from village to village. easterncity.Thedetailsmaydiffer regionally,but one thing remains the same: The monsters are the stars. In many celebrations, these fantastic creatures with the power to summon spring are divided into the “beautiful ones” and the “ugly ones” (ta lepi and ta grdi, respectively). The beautiful ones (depicted as newlyweds, doctors, and other personages) visit homes, offering gifts andindulging inshots ofhomemade schnapps.Thesehouse callspromise goodluck for the rest of the year. The ugly ones (representing devils or souls ofthe dead) make mischief. Their job is to chase away winter and eventually “kill” Pust(symbolic ofwinter, oftendepicted as a straw doll). Pustje,the mosticonic of the ugly ones, don colorful suits made of strips of fabric and horned helmets with demonic faces made of wood or sheepskin. Their arms are covered with soot.In some villages,they wield wooden pincers. The motley crew typically makes its way to the edge of town, where the straw Pust is set ablaze. Villagers take particular pride in how they interpret these age-old Pust customs. In Kanal and the towns around Lig, the festival is called Liški Pust, and its claim to fame is bakreni, gleaming masks hammered out of sheet metal. Once made of copper, the bakreni (and the festival) were abandoned after World War I, when metal supplies ran low. Then, in the 1950s, locals uncovered a 19th-century copper mask from ahouse being renovated. The artifact—preserved by a painter named Pavel Medvešček—inspired resident Branko Žnidarčič to rekindle the maskmaking practice and the festivalin the 1980s. He now runs a workshop and a museum displaying more than 200 of his creations. “I began to make reconstructions of old, nearly forgotten characters, with the help of Pavel Medvešček’s documents and sketches,” Žnidarčič explains. “Before theywere lostto oblivion, he recordedmanyCarnivalfigures,which he accurately described and drew.” Formany,Pustisalsoariteofpassage. A big part of some festivals involves the Pustje characters chasing boys throughtown. Once the boys are caught, the monsters playfully “beat” them with ash-stuffed stockings, dramatically launching clouds of smoke into the air. The baptismal dusting hints at the bonfire that brings Pust to an end. With the coming of spring, the ash-covered boys symbolize a shiftinto adulthood. That often means taking on the roles of monsters at the next Pust, starting the cycle all over again. j Noah Charney is a professor and Pulitzer Prize finalist who has been living in Slovenia for more than a decade. Native Slovenian Ciril Jazbec is a National Geographic Explorer. E U R O P E A F R I C A SLOVENIA
E X P L O R E | A D V E N T U R E B Y J O R D A N S A L A M A P H O T O G R A P H B Y W A Y N E L A W R E N C E RIO ROCKS Across this sprawling city of nearly seven million people, mountains punctuate the landscape; towering cliffs overlook cerulean waters and sleek edifices. The rock around Rio, primarily granite and gneiss, draws adventurers of all experience levels for adrenaline-fueled ascents year-round. CLASSIC CLIMB Among the many peaks, Sugarloaf, at right, sticks out like a soaring thumb. To reach its summit, most visitors opt for an easy cable car ride, but others dare to climb. Novices take the Costão trail, while those with intermediate to advanced skills can test their courage and stamina on the technical routes or the via ferrata, which is equipped with a permanent steel cable. BEYOND THE BEACH From a perch above Favela Santa Marta, photographer Wayne Lawrence captured this image of Rio de Janeiro, which stretches along the Atlantic Ocean and Guanabara Bay. While Brazil’s second largest city is famed for its lively beaches—Ipanema, Copacabana—it also has more than a thousand rock-climbing routes, making it an excellent urban destination for the sport. 30 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
NGM MAPS 2 C A B L E C A R L I N E S N E E D E D T O S U M M I T S U G A R L O A F M O U N TA I N 100+ R O C K- C L I M B I N G R O U T E S O N S U G A R L O A F 1,299 H E I G H T O F S U G A R L O A F, I N F E E T BY THE NUMBERS ATLANTIC OCEAN SOUTH AMERICA Rio de Janeiro BRAZIL F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3 31
3. During a total lunar eclipse, when the moon is in Earth’s shadow, bent red light falls on its surface (July 27, 2018). MOONVIEWS INRAINBOW HUES THE MOON’S ACTUAL COLOR isanoff-whitebrown-gray whenitsdustysurfaceis sunlit.ButEarth’satmosphere modifies our views ofthe moon, altering colors and shape. Italian photographer Marcella Giulia Pace, whohas capturedlunar variations for 10years, chose 48 of her images to compare in this spiral montage. The varied colors appear when the moon is seen or photographed through stratified and irregular gas layers of Earth’s atmospheric blanket. Tiny air molecules in the layers scatter light that hits them, and their structure causes blue lightto scatter more readily than red or orange. When,for example, Pace photographs the moon through the densest air—as it rises and as it sits just above the horizon—this phenomenonis especially intense, glowingmore red or orange. Othermaterials inthe atmosphere—water droplets,dust,wildfiresmoke—alsoinfluencethepath of light and affectthe moon’s hue, and those colors are specific to the suspended materials themselves. The moon’s apparent shape also is altered as the lightit emits travels throughthe stratifiedair.Because the atmosphere nearest Earth’s surface is much denser than high above, the path of light traveling those varied densities will bend. The result: The light’s source appears as a squished ellipse instead of a lunar disk. —L IZ KRU E S I 3 1 2 E X P L O R E | C A P T U R E D PHOTO: MARCELLA GIULIA PACE (COMPOSITE OF 48 IMAGES) 1. The daytime sky’s scattered blue light tints a just risen color-altered red moon (March 12, 2017). 2. Light passing through varied atmospheric densities is bent, changing how the moon’s shape appears (February 15, 2014). 32 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
84 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C Origami Inspiration.... P. 34 An Aging Japan...........P. 58 Sea Otters ................... P. 84 Building With Mud ...P. 108 F E A T U R E S H U M A N S A R E C A P T I V A T E D B Y T H E I R C U T E N E S S — A N D H A V E H E L P E D W I L D P O P U L A T I O N S R E B O U N D I N T H E I R H O M E WA T E R S . B U T S U C C E S S F O R S E A O T T E R S I S A M U R K Y M A T T E R . PHOTO: RALPH PACE. IMAGE TAKEN UNDER U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE PERMIT 37946D F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3
Origami artist and physicist Robert J. Lang folded this crane out of a single uncut square of paper. The complexity of this form—from spindly limbs to feathered wings—was once thought to be nearly impossible. But Lang, a pioneer in the use of mathematics in origami, designed the bird using geometric concepts at the core of a program called TreeMaker, which he developed in 1993 to test whether computers could help design origami. 34
B Y M A Y A W E I - H A A S P H O T O G R A P H S B Y C R A I G C U T L E R O R I G A M I H A S L O N G I N S P I R E D A R T I S T S . N O W I T ’ S B L A Z I N G N E W T R A I L S I N S C I E N C E A N D T E C H N O L O G Y. The Fut I s ure folded
UNFURLING This series of mountains and valleys harbors an astonishing property: It can compact or flatten with a single motion. Lang folded this example of tessellated origami using a sheet of paper, but the pattern has also been used to pack the solar array on board Japan’s Space Flyer Unit, which deployed after the spacecraft’s launch in 1995. The repeating angled creases allow a folded sheet to lengthen and expand at the same time. Known as Miura-ori, the pattern was described by astrophysicist Koryo Miura in the 1970s and is similar to others found in nature, such as the unfurling leaves of a beech tree.
PROTECTING The intricate fold pattern of Air99’s Airgami face mask helps improve both fit and function. Crafted from a flexible N95-grade filter that’s fused to a more rigid and foldable layer, the mask’s edges stay flush to the face because of its particular pattern of creases. When flattened, it’s two to three times the size of common N95 masks. Increasing a mask’s surface area allows more air to pass through at once. “It’s like breathing through a straw versus a big pipe,” says Richard Gordon, Air99 co-founder and CEO. A CAC O PH O NY O F barking alerts me to the cardboard box delivered to my front door. Packed inside is a single sheet of white corrugated plastic folded into what looks like a large suitcase. My canine companions take a curious sniff as I unfurl the rigid form, which spans nearly the width of my living room. Pushing outward on the creases of one side,I hear a shockingly loud pop. The dogs sprintfor cover, scrambling across woodfloors, while Ifrantically look for damage, heart pounding. But nothing’s broken.Instead,the plastic suitcase has transformed, and suddenly a full-size kayak is sitting in my living room. The boat, created by the company Oru Kayak, is part of a scientific andtechnological revolutioninspiredby the centuries-oldart of origami. What began as efforts to understand the math behind fold patterns has opened up surprising possibilities for manipulating the shape, movement, and properties of all kinds of materials—filters offace masks,the plastic of kayaks, even living cells. “I just can’t keep up,” says Robert J. Lang, a preeminent origami artist who previously worked as a laser physicist. “That’s a wonderful place for the field to be.” The art of origami has existed in Japan since at least the 17th century, but there are hints of paper folding from long before. Initially, models were simple and—because paper was expensive—used largely for ceremonial purposes, such as the male and female paper butterflies known as Ocho and Mecho that 38 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
EXPLORING This expanding disk lies at the center of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s halfscale prototype for a starshade, which could become a vital part of the search for habitable worlds. Our galaxy has about as many planets as stars, but scientists, blinded by the starry backdrop of space, often can’t view these orbiting worlds directly. By flying far in front of a space telescope to block starlight, the starshade could help the scientists get a clear look. The starshade’s structure is based on a so-called flasher pattern, which allows it to coil into a cylinder for launch. Deployed, the shade (shown partially opened in the previous image) would unfurl into a flat disk with petals like a flower.
Balloo cathe Airf Stowed Deployed Compact E Telescope with folded starshade Starshade unfolded Blocked light Exoplanet Not to scale Star ALBERTO LUCAS LÓPEZ, NGM STAFF; LAWSON PARKER ART: MATTHEW TWOMBLY SOURCES: ITAI COHEN, CORNELL UNIVERSITY; NASA EXOPLANET EXPLORATION PROGRAM; EDUCATIONAL MUSEUM OF ORIGAMI IN ZARAGOZA (EMOZ); MARCO MELONI AND OTHERS, ADVANCED SCIENCE, JULY 2021 Engineers are increasingly turning to the centuries-old art of folding paper into threedimensional forms to shape some of the modern world’s most ambitious designs. The models shown here, many of which are still prototypes, demonstrate the exciting potential of future technologies. Not only are designs less expensive and faster to manufacture in twodimensional form, but folding also opens a new realm of scale, materials, and mechanical movement, with applications ranging from repairing our bodies to exploring outer space. This month’s cover features a starshade prototype that NASA is testing for deployment in space. Origami makes packing the shade on a rocket possible. The exercise on the next page allows you to test the basic principles of the design yourself. Make your own starshade UNF O L D ING THE SCI ENCE SECTORS USING ORIGAMI ORIGAMIBASED DESIGN UNDERLYING ORIGAMI STRUCTURE HOW IT WORKS ORIGAMI, EVERYWHERE Space missions need structures that are lightweight and versatile, compact during transport, and large once deployed. Origami-inspired space tools have grown to include antennas, photovoltaic arrays, sun shields, and solar sails. SPACE EXPLORATION The inner disk when deployed is much like a bicycle wheel: An outer truss is supported by spokes tensioned against a center hub. A motor unfurls a folded optical shield 65 feet in diameter. Flying in tandem with a space telescope, the starshade would use thrusters to position itself 31,000 miles in front of it, covering a star that can blaze 10 billion times as bright as its exoplanets. A starshade would fly between a telescope and a distant star, blocking the star’s light so that orbiting exoplanets could be seen and studied for signs of life. The starshade, folded to fit within a 16-foot-wide launch vehicle, would grow to about the size of half a football field once fully extended. Starshade exoplanet exploration One of the fields most advanced in de ing origami-based designs, the biomed industry leverages the art to make proc as minimally invasive as possible. Appli include targeted drug delivery and imp surgical structures deep inside the bod BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING A flat shape made of six square panels is f into a compact cube configuration and th minimally invasive surgery, is placed inside fractured vertebra. As a minuscule balloon is inflated, the cub expands to restore the height of the verte The balloon is then removed. “Deployable imp allow compact s to be placed in a fractured bon before they unf into larger, load bearing structu Manufacturing implants in a fla also makes it po to design surfa that can promo bone regenerat and kill bacteri Vertebral implants FOHOW O LRIGAMI IS RE DSHAPING OUR EWORLD D THE FUTURE IS FOHOW O LRIGAMI IS RE DSHAPING OUR EWORLD D THE FUTURE IS
on ter flow Deployed leg Bending along folds creates movement Robot Solar panels Microchip Expanded Open Closed Released Gripped Flat Standing Airflow Skin Skeleton Object Schematic Panels reduce solar-heat absorption by over 50 percent evelopdical cedures cations planting dy. olded en, with e the be ebra. plants” shapes side ne fold dures. the t state ossible ces ote tion a. Originally adopted by architects for aesthetic reasons, origami-based designs can also reduce energy demands and improve structural performance. Some are responsive to their environment, changing shape in reaction to light or acoustics. STRUCTURAL ARCHITECTURE Each shading device is made of fiberglass mesh and weighs about 1.7 tons. Sun-tracking software controls the opening and closing sequence according to the sun’s position. Battling an environment of intense heat and blowing sand, two towers in the United Arab Emirates built in 2012 are each composed of 1,049 origami-like shading elements. The screens are responsive to sun exposure, opening in broad daylight to provide shade and conserve energy. Al Bahar Towers’ responsive facades Compared with conventional robotics, origami designs, when manufactured in two dimensions and then assembled into three, can be both easier to store and more cost-efficient—all while supporting complex computational and sensing mechanisms. ROBOTICS The bell-shaped gripper has a foldable, silicone rubber skeleton based on an origami pattern that can shift between a spherical and a cylindrical shape. It’s wrapped in an airtight rubber skin. When a vacuum sucks air out of the skin, the origami skeleton collapses along fold lines to grip the enclosed object. It can lift up to 25 pounds—over 120 times its own weight. The system can be overridden to control individual panels. Wind and solar sensors will automatically open the panels during high winds—and close them during prolonged overcast conditions. Rigid robotic hands lack dexterity, but soft bots often lack strength. An origami skeleton allows this gripper to mold around fragile items without compromising brawn, lifting anything from a single broccoli floret to a hammer. It could someday work on a factory assembly line— or around the house. Vacuum-driven gripper Imagine a robot so small that thousands can be injected through the tip of a needle—aiding microsurgery, cleaning bacteria from surfaces, or exploring worlds at a new scale. Invisible to the naked eye, some can fold appendages, becoming 3D forms that then walk or swim. MICROscopic engineering Robotic limbs are built around a flat microchip that acts as a brain. Powered by light, electrochemical reactions create stress and bend the base layer of the legs. Sections of rigid material restrict bending to predetermined origami-like folds to achieve the desired 3D position. The microchip brain coordinates limb movements to form an autonomous walking robot. More than one million robots—each less than 100 micrometers long— can be manufactured onto eight-inch disks. These microscopic robots (see penny size comparison) have detectors, power sources, and circuits that will enable them to sense, interact with, and control their local environment. Mass-manufactured microscopic robots
PUZZLING Mathemat fully unde math behi ture’s eleg which form folds are a cular sheet these reall 3D forms w ple creasin Demaine, a MIT who d fold patte festoonsake bottles at Shintoweddings. As paper prices fell, origami’s uses spread to gift wrap, playthings, and even geometry lessons for kids. Then, in the mid-20th century, origami master Akira Yoshizawa helped elevate paper folding to a fine art. He breathed life and personality into each creature he designed, from a stern-faced gorilla glowering out of sunken eyes to a baby elephant joyfully swinging its trunk. With the publication of his first origami book in 1954, Yoshizawa also made the art form more accessible, establishing an easily understandable language of dotted lines, dashes, and arrows that contributed to systems still used today. In the late 1950s, Yoshizawa’s delicate forms inspired Tomoko Fuse, now one of the foremost origami artists in Japan. Her father gave her Yoshizawa’s second origami book when she was recovering from diphtheria as a child. Fuse methodically crafted every model, and she’s been entranced with origami ever since. “It’s like magic,” she says. “Just one flat paper becomes something wonderful.” Among her many achievements, Fuse is famous for her advances in modular origami, which uses interlocking units to create models with greater flexibility and potential complexity. But she thinks of her work as less about creation than about discovering something that’s already there, “like a treasure hunter,” she says. She describes her process as if she’s watching from afar, following wherever the paper leads her. “Suddenly, beautiful patterns come out.” Indeed, origami taps into patterns that echo throughout the universe, seen in natural forms such as leaves emerging from a bud or insects tucking their wings. For these exquisite folds to become scientificallyuseful,however, researchers mustnotonlydiscover thepatternsbutalsounderstand how they work. And that requires math. PU T T I N G N U M B E R S to origami’s intriguing patterns has long driven the work of Thomas Hull, a mathematicianatWesternNewEngland University in Springfield, Massachusetts.WhenIwalkintohis school’smath department, I know immediately which office is his. The door at the end of the hall is ajar, revealing boldly colored paper folded in all manner of geometric shapes. The models fill every nook of the small r ing the bo top comp pattern; b shoes, wh been fasc unfolding atthe ord There a he recalls decades w governing As we c that are fo unexpect sheet fold whichcau known as sheet fold called the opens wit physicist was used Space Fly In the y to many ing tiny s coats the Kuribayas When pro flat struct says, that Despite and techn met resis sion he ha the Natio governme Valley fold Mountain fold ALBERTO LUCAS LÓPEZ, NGM STAFF; LAWSON PARKER; MATTHEW TWOMBLY SOURCE: NASA/JPL-CALTECH Use this classic origami method to craft a model of the optical shield that may someday help NASA capture images of planets outside our solar system. Scan this QR code or visit natgeo.com/starshade to access and print out a larger template for easier folding. Cut along dotted lines and crease along fold lines. Blue lines are “mountain folds” that rise up. Orange lines are “valley folds” that point down. Gently run a pencil or fingernail along fold lines to help with creasing. Once all lines are creased, fold along all fold lines, moving from the center outward. Lines will fold 180 degrees. Hold the central, base hexagon flat while rotating and gathering the folds into a spiral shape. This folded model represents a starshade’s inner-disk optical shield when it’s stowed before launch. Open and close the starshade by pulling opposite edges of the sheets apart, then pushing them back together. Cut the starshade template along the dotted lines. M A K E Y O U R O W N ORIGAMI STARSHADE 1 Cutandcrease 2 Foldandgather 3 Furlandunfurl
ticians don’t rstand the nd this strucgant bends, m as curving dded to cirts. “You get ly impressive with very simng,” says Erik a professor at designed the rn with his father, Martin Demaine, also at MIT. Drawn to folding as a way to develop new magic tricks, the duo fell in love with the geometrical problems that origami presents. While curved creases don’t yet have applications, Erik sees many possibilities in their simplicity and potential strength. room—hanging fromthe ceiling, adornookshelves, and surrounding the deskputer. Hull himself is a riot of color and black and white spirals dance across his hich are tied with purple laces. He’s long inated by patterns and still remembers g a paper crane at age 10 and marveling ered creases in the flat sheet. are rules at play that allow this to work, s thinking. Hull and others have spent working to understand the mathematics g the world of origami. chat, Hull pulls out an array of models folded in intriguing shapes or move in ted ways. One is an impossible-looking ded with ridges of concentric squares, use thepaper totwistinanelegant swoop s a hyperbolic paraboloid. Another is a ded in a series of mountains and valleys e Miura-ori pattern, which collapses or th a single tug. Dreamed up by astroKoryo Miura in the 1970s, the pattern to compact the solar panels of Japan’s yer Unit, which launched in 1995. years since, origami has been applied different types of materials, includsheets of cells. This unusual medium self-folding structure created by Kaori shi-Shigetomi at Hokkaido University. obed, the cells contract, transforming tures into cellular “Lego blocks,” as she t could one day aid in growing organs. e origami’s current popularity inscience nology, researchers’ early folding forays stance. Hull still remembers a discusad in 1997 with a program officer from onal Science Foundation (NSF), a U.S. ent agency that supports research and
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FLOATING In 2007 Anton Willis, who’d just completed a graduate degree in architecture, moved into an apartment in San Francisco that was so cramped he had to put his beloved kayak in storage. A magazine profile of Lang, the origami artist and physicist, gave him the idea for a solution to his space problem: a kayak that folded. He began crafting paper models, sometimes surreptitiously at work, from one continuous sheet to ensure the boat would be watertight. “For a while it was almost like crumpling up the paper to see how it can fold in on itself, and then refining from there,” says Willis, who eventually founded Oru Kayak. The company now has a full line of foldable boats that compact in minutes and are priced on a par with traditional kayaks. T H E F U T U R E I S F O L D E D 51
LIFTING Shuguang Li was playing with a collapsible origami cylinder when, on a whim, he put it in a vacuum bag. Li, then a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and MIT, pumped out the air and was surprised to see the shape contract as if he’d pressed it with his hand. By testing other shapes, he realized that fold patterns and material stiffness controlled their motions, a discovery that led to the creation of these soft, strong, and lightweight robotic arms. Each arm acts like an artificial muscle, encased in a vacuum bag “skin” with an inner skeleton inspired by origami’s folds. By varying vacuum pressure, Li can make the arms perform useful tasks, like lifting and grasping.
education. Hull was outlining a potential project, when the program officer cut him off to say that the NSF would never fund “a research proposal with origami in the title.” This skepticism wasn’t limited to the United States. Tomohiro Tachi, a prominent origami engineer at the University of Tokyo, looks down with a smile when I ask if he’s ever faced resistance to his work. People in Japan, he says, often view origami as child’s play. But that perception has shifted over the past couple of decades, with the NSF spearheading much of the change. During a temporary posting at the organization starting in 2009, Glaucio Paulino pushed to fund research involving origami. “The process was brutal,” says Paulino, who is now a professor of engineering at Princeton. “We were always in the hot seat trying to defend the idea.” But the effort paid off. In 2011 the NSF issued the first oftwo calls for proposals mixing origami and science, and teams of researchers flocked to submit ideas. The move lent legitimacy to the burgeoning field—and the use of origami in science blossomed. “There was this resonance,” Lang says. “It was something whose time had come.” OR I G A M I I S N OW pushing the limits of what scientists think is possible, particularly at the tiniest of scales. On a blazing hot summer day, I meet up with Marc Miskin, an electrical engineer at the University of Pennsylvania.Inside the airy lobby of UPenn’s SinghCenter forNanotechnology,wepeer through a bright-orange glass wall into a series of rooms where people dressed head to toe in Tyvek sit at microscopes or work under vent hoods. It feels like aworldaway fromthe colorful chaos of Hull’s office, but origami may prove no less vital here. Miskin and his students have been using the clean room to craft an army of robots no bigger than a speck of dust. Such tiny bots require big creativity. Gears and most other mechanisms with moving parts work best in the human-size world where momentum and inertia rule, Miskin explains. But that’s not the case at tiny scales where forces like friction are enormous, causing everything to stick. Gears won’t turn. Wheels don’t spin. Belts don’t run. That’s where origami comes in. Fold patterns will bend and move the same way at any size, at least theoretically. Created using the same techniques as the computer chip industry, Miskin’s robots look like fat flakes with arms and legs. When exposed to a trigger, such as voltage, their limbs bend,helping themwalk throughadropon a glass slide or wave at a passing amoeba. Miskin sees a world of possible ways these tiny bots could be used, from manufacturing to medicine. For now, though, pushing the limits is what’s most important to him. “If you go after hard problems,” he says, “you’ll be rewarded with interesting technology.” Origami holds particular promise for biomedicine. For instance, a team led by Daniela Rus, director of the Massachusetts Institute of 54 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
Staff writer Maya Wei-Haas, who covers science for the magazine, folded a thousand origami cranes for her wedding. Craig Cutler specializes in still life and environmental portraiture. HEALING This tiny robot’s swirling folds allow it to twist as it collapses or expands. Often called the Kresling pattern, for design expert and architect Biruta Kresling, the folds have inspired the invention of cylindrical structures large and small, including this minuscule medical tool. Crafted by a team led by Ruike Renee Zhao, a mechanical engineer at Stanford University, the device could one day be vital in targeted drug delivery. Magnetic fields could direct the robot to move through the body multiple ways. For example, spinning propels it through liquid thanks to the geometry of its folds. Paired magnets on opposite ends of the cylinder force the folds to compress, pumping liquid medicine to a desired point. Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, developed a robot that canfold tofitinto a pill capsule. After the capsule is ingested, the bot unfolds and can be directed around the digestive system using programmable magnetic fields. An initialtest demonstrated one possible use: removing swallowed button batteries from the stomach, a potentially deadly condition experienced by thousands of children each year. “Imagine embedding medicine or using it to patch a wound,” Rus says. “Just imagine a future of surgeries with no incisions, no pain, and no risk of infection.” These types of big dreams are where origami seems to help science flourish most. The venerable art form has provided a new tool kit to ignite the imagination and create technologies once thoughtimpossible, including a kayak that folds down small enough to fit in a car’s trunk. On a bright fall afternoon I take my kayak for a spin on Virginia’s Lake Accotink. The plastic suitcase draws curious looks from passersby as I unfold it. Perhaps one day folding forms will be seen as prosaic. Butfor now, origami will continue to spark wonder and excitement as it propels science, medicine, and technology into the future—and keeps me afloat as I shove off from the lakeshore. j T H E F U T U R E I S F O L D E D 55