I was reading a paper on Ladybirds, and it turns out they have remarkable wings. What makes them truly remarkable is they fit beneath tiny cup-shaped hard wing covers. Until recently, scientists had no idea how that mechanism worked:

When ladybirds are about to take off, they lift their wing covers and then inflate complicated pleated wings that flip out from their zig-zag folded position.

When they land, they put their wing covers down first then retract their wings under them. This mechanism is bewildering until you look at an origami maquette which explains the natural zig zag hinge.

I derived a crease pattern, explored and modified it then tried it out – remarkable indeed.

I love it that origami was used to realise a scientific concept, and then photo microscopy confirmed the crease pattern.