Carbon-based paper that walks and self-folds when flashed with laserNov 9(AZINS) Researchers from the Donghua University, China have created a carbon-based paper that folds itself up. And what inspired this? The art of paper folding, origami.

The ultra-thin black material is called graphene oxide.

How does an inanimate object fold itself up? Magic. Well not quite, the graphene-based paper folds up when it is hit by infrared heat.

The paper can walk, turn, and fold itself into a pre-designed shape.

Selected areas of the paper shrink when heated with infrared light and swell back up again when the light is turned off.

This makes the paper strips that walk forward, backward and turn when prompted by bursts of laser light.

The researchers hope that this technique could be further used in artificial muscles, robotics and replace other slow responding polymer materials in machines.

What's more, it could help improve your origami skills.

The study was published in Science Advances.