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Craig Cutler

This rabbit was folded from a pattern generated by the Origamizer, a computer program designed by Tomohiro Tachi of the University of Tokyo for creating complex faceted shapes (note the bunny’s mosaiclike appearance). The program helped spur the recent explosion of origami models. These folded forms are “like a common language,” Tachi says, connecting scientists across disciplines around the world and demonstrating the endless possibilities that unfold when art and science mix.

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.

Mathematicians don’t fully understand the math behind this structure’s elegant bends, which form as curving folds are added to circular sheets. “You get these really impressive 3D forms with very simple creasing,” says Erik Demaine, a professor at MIT who designed the fold pattern 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.

This expanding disk lies at the center of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s half-scale 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 first image) would unfurl into a flat disk with petals like a flower.

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.

TK

During surgery, Brent Bauer eases his pain by playing a virtual reality game called SnowWorld. He participated in a study that suggests VR could decrease the need for general anesthesia, reducing the risks and cost.

Two hours northwest of Manaus, Brazil, a 131-foot steel tower rises from a pristine area of the rainforest. Built in 1979, the tower had long been used to track the exchange of carbon dioxide between the trees and the atmosphere, but more recently it has been used for pioneering entomology research.

Cristina Iossa sings to her prematurely born son, Alessandro, at the neonatal intensive care unit of University Hospital in Modena, Italy. In some NICUs, parents are encouraged to have a more frequent presence. Scientists theorize that exposure to a mother’s voice stimulates a newborn’s brain to develop optimally to interpret sounds and understand language.

A mother talks to her premature baby during a painful heel prick procedure to take blood in Aosta, Italy. Manuela Filippa, a researcher at the University of Geneva, has shown that preemies that hear their mother's voice during a painful medical procedure increased the release of the hormone oxytocin which provides strong neuro protection against the short-and long-term effects of pain.