Learn about pathology and fold an origami beating heart!

Thanks to the Royal College of Pathologists, Dr Lizzie Burns collaborates with Dr Esther Youd to combine pathology with origami! Fold along and make your own origami beating heart, whilst learning more about the science of the heart and its cells. Find out even more about pathology here: www.rcpath.org/discover-pathology.html

Origami beating heart instructions
Designed by David Petty

To make your own beating heart fold along the line of the drawing of heart cells to the right and tear or cut off the strip. The diagram above shows how to fold the drawings into an origami heart that can be made to beat and make a sound through gripping the back with your fingers. Start folding with step 1 with the back of the drawing. If you find diagrams hard to follow then watch the video above for a demonstration for folding. 

Your heart pumps blood around your body to keep you alive and well. This remarkable part of your body is made of muscle cells that beat. A continuous flow of blood is needed to keep your body working. At rest, your heart beats around 70 times a minute. The drawing on the right shows how the heart looks under the microscope. Use it as the strip of paper for folding your own beating heart. Colour in the drawing before you fold your heart.

Section A of the drawing shows the microscopic appearance of healthy cells (cardiac muscle) that are responsible for your heart beating. Colour in these muscle cells and notice their long fibres and round nuclei where your DNA is found. The line in the white space between the two sides of the drawing represents a scale (100 micrometres) which is around the width of a human hair. The muscle cells in your heart are large compared to other cells so they can perform their task of beating over three billion times in an average lifetime.

Sections B, C and D of the drawing show how heart cells can change through disease, with three different examples. Section B shows how heart cells look when a pathologist diagnoses a heart attack – the cells have been damaged and died, their nuclei are missing and some tiny red blood cells can be seen. Section C shows muscle cells being attacked by white blood cells through a rare auto-immune disease (myocarditis) which weakens the heart. Section D shows cells from someone with a genetic disease (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) where muscle cells grow at unusual angles and so cannot work well together for pumping blood. Cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons specialise in the heart. Pathologists work with these specialists to help. patients with heart problems like those shown. Add colour to the cells as a pathologist would when looking at a specimen under a microscope, then fold a healthy beating heart.

Pathologists include doctors and scientists who study and help diagnose disease and work in 17 different specialties. Read more about pathology: www.rcpath.org/discover-pathology. Drawings and writing: science-based artist, Dr Lizzie Burns in collaboration with pathologist Dr Esther Youd.
‘Beating heart’ Origami designed by David Petty with thanks for permission from the British Origami Society. ©Dr Lizzie Burns 2020

Click here to download these instructions in pdf form >

Fold more incredible structures with Dr Lizzie Burns and the Origami Pulse ‘Made with gLove’ project

Dr Lizzie Burns is part of Origami Pulse CIC, a registered Community Interest Company dedicated exclusively to the art and science of Origami. Lizzie and the rest of the team advocate passionately the mental health benefits of the practice of Origami and encourage you to give it a go!

Their ‘Made with gLove’ project, with thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund, aims to bring people together, particularly those in isolation to share a moment in folding.

Find out more about Made with gLove here: origamipulse.com/made-with-glove

Here Dr Lizzie Burns explains and demonstrates how to fold a series of origami structures, starting with your basic square and building up to an incredible modular star. Watch the videos below, fold along and give it a try!

Fold an origami square

Fold a traditional origami duck

Fold an origami modular star

Q&A with origami enthusiast Yuen Har

Not sure if origami is accessible if you have a vision impairment? Dr Lizzie Burns talks to Yuen Har who is visually impaired herself and passionate about folding incredible origami structures.

Origami can be an accessible way to explore structure, engineering and of course creativity! In this video Dr Lizzie Burns talks to Yuen Har about how she tackles origami as a visually impaired person. Yeun shares some of her amazing creations with us.

Following on from their chat about origami, Dr Lizzie Burns, who started the Anti-Boredom Campaign, talks to Yuen Har about life growing up with a vision impairment. Yuen Har confesses her childhood was a time when she often suffered from boredom. With the desire to physically take part in an activity, origami could have been the perfect outlet.

Yuen Har tells how she enjoyed a range of engaging activities at boarding school and her curiosity and love of science took her on a path to a career in software engineering.