The answer is YES it does! Cu-razy, huh?
I watched a fantastic lecture on YouTube last night (another rockin' night for me!) as part of the Museum of Mathematics channel. MIT professor Erik Demaine's lecture "The Geometry of Origami" is part of MoMath's Math Encounters series which aims to diversify and expand the general public's interest and understanding in mathematics.
You can find a direct link to Part 1 of 4 of Erik Demaine's lecture here.
The first three parts deal primarily with the relationship between origami folding and mathematics. There are mentions here and there of applications such as working out mathematically the most efficient way to fold an airbag flat in a car, but it is not until the 4th part of the lecture that he talks about really interesting practical applications relating to biomathematics and medical research.
In particular, Demaine's explains that linkage folding can be used to see how proteins in the body fold in 3 dimensions. Demaine outlines applications in research of diseases and the folding of proteins to capture bad proteins while leaving the others in tact.
So yeah, this is really great stuff, but... well it's all a bit science-y and serious.
You know when else these mathematics-based folding techniques are applied?
Designing Transformers!
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