June events at the intersection of science and culture.
PAPER
Folded: The Origami Masterworks of Robert J. Lang. Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif. Opens June 17. Free.
Surface to Structure: Folded Forms. Cooper Union. 41 Cooper Square, Manhattan. Opens June 19. Free.
OrigamiUSA Exhibition. Fashion Institute of Technology, 227 West 27th Street, Manhattan. June 28-29. $5.
The discipline of origami may seem quaint, but modern folders are pushing the edge - none more than Robert Lang, a former physicist with hundreds of paper designs to his name. His exhibition in Pasadena goes way beyond cranes: There are a moose, a chameleon and a scorpion, a tiny hummingbird sipping on a paper honeysuckle, even a praying mantis biting off the head of her mate, folded from a single square. Dr. Lang has scaled up, with 60 life-size koi fish, and down, collaborating with scientists to build an origami bird, from a tiny purple sheet of self-folding polymer, that requires a microscope to view.
In addition to the solo show, Dr. Lang will send an array of flying creatures, including a vulture and dragonfly, to a globe-spanning origami show at Cooper Union, And he will teach at the OrigamiUSA convention, where hundreds of folders converge on Manhattan, some so enthusiastic that they stay up folding until dawn.
FESTIVAL
World Science Festival. Wednesday to June 1 in New York City. Prices vary.
When it comes to suspense, it's hard to compete with nature itself. A few of the events this weekend deal with the storytelling impulse. On opening night, the play 'Dear Albert' by Alan Alda, drawn from Einstein's letters and featuring Paul Rudd and Cynthia Nixon, will show the vulnerable side of the revered scientist. At a panel on science writing, the novelists Joyce Carol Oates and E. L. Doctorow will join two researchers with popular books, Steven Pinker and Sean Carroll, to talk about conveying science to the wider public.
TELEVISION
'Is Poverty Genetic? Through the Wormhole With Morgan Freeman.' Science Channel. June 4 at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time.
'My experience shows that being born poor is not necessarily a life sentence,' Morgan Freeman announces in this episode of his show, which in its fifth season seems to be tilting from metaphysics ('Is reality real?' 'What is nothing?') to more practical concerns. Under a barrage of high-impact visuals, Mr. Freeman skims through a half-dozen theories on inequality, some more credible than others. A geneticist has found that good genes may lead children to make more money than their peers, but only if they grow up free from poverty. An econophysicist believes that money tends to spread through a society in much the same way that energy spreads through particles in a boiling pot, with most wage earners sloshing at the bottom while a few investors escape from the top like steam rising.
FOOD
Scientific Kitchen. World Science Festival. Wednesday to June 1 in New York City. Age 21 and over. Sold out; limited tickets at the door.
This series of hands-on workshops uses desserts and alcohol to deliver science straight to mouth. The culinary games begin with pie, as two pastry chefs enlist a biophysicist to explain why cutting apples flat will prevent steam from building up inside the crust. On Saturday, the condensed-matter physicist David Grier will use his video microscope to reveal the interactions among fat, protein and lactose as they are churned into butter.
At some boozier events, an archaeologist will reconstruct an ancient ale from chemical traces found on a 3,500-year-old vessel, and botanists will show guests how to extract their own bitters ultrasonically using plants from around the world. For those overwhelmed by all the sugar, fat and spirits, a panel on 'the neuroscience of uncontrollable urges' will consider the prospect of vaccines for drugs like heroin and cocaine.
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