Earwigs, those entirely harmless yet unduly reviled members of the insect world, are dear to my heart, and are the unofficial mascot of the Endless-Swarm. So it’s always a joy to find other articles appreciating them. This article from National Geographic titled An ode to earwig wings, which break the standard laws of origami, comes with a lovely video by Fumihiko Hirai and Amy Rankin showing Japanese earwigs taking flight.

Earwig Wing. image courtesy of Julia Deiters, Wojciech Kowalczyk, Tobias Seidl
The article highlights scientists Andres Arrieta, who co-authored Bioinspired spring origami on ScienceMag, and Julia Deiters, co-author of Simultaneous optimisation of earwig hindwings for flight and folding , which has the added delight of not being behind a paywall. Check it out!

Earwig Wing. image courtesy of Julia Deiters, Wojciech Kowalczyk, Tobias Seidl
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