Curling of thin objects is ubiquitous in nature, from peeling of dried paint to bursting red blood cells. In this talk, I will present two problems involving curling of thin objects. 
First, the curling of an initially flat but naturally curved
elastica on a hard, non-adhesive surface will be considered.  
This problem is governed by elasticity, geometric nonlinearity, and inertia.
From theory, simulations, and experiments, I will present
results for the curling front and self-similarity in the shape of
the curl at short and long times after the release of one end of the
elastica.  Second, I will describe a model for the release of malaria parasites
from red blood cells, which involves outward curling of the cell membrane.
This work is motivated by recent experiments by Abkarian et al. (Blood, 2011),
and I will show that these results can be understood based on a competition
between energy release due to parasite-induced spontaneous curvature 
of the cell membrane and viscous dissipation mainly coming from 
in-plane membrane flows.