The Japanese art of origami, in which paper is meticulously folded into a wide range of intricate three-dimensional shapes, also lends itself to myriad applications in engineering; examples include the possibility of efficient flat-pack transportation of "pop-up" accommodation buildings in disaster-struck areas, and the preparation of expandable stents that allow for minimally invasive keyhole surgery. The folding itself can be induced by a number of stimuli depending on the materials involved, with electrical, magnetic, chemical, or mechanical stimuli having been demonstrated.
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