alt.hn

2/16/2026 at 6:41:50 PM

14-year-old Miles Wu folded origami pattern that holds 10k times its own weight

 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-14-year-old-is-using-origami-to-design-emergency-shelters-that-are-sturdy-cost-efficient-and-easy-to-deploy-180988179/

by bookofjoe

2/16/2026 at 8:50:07 PM

Don't get hung up on "14 year old". Pay attention to "took up origami 6 years ago". That's 6 years of passionate learning, experimenting and improvement.

by givemeethekeys

2/16/2026 at 9:39:06 PM

Also, ‘years’ tend to be a lot more hours for kids, and each hour yields more learning due to neuroplasticity. I learned so much faster at 15 than I do at 35. I know more now, which often more than makes up for slower learning, but I can’t learn difficult novel subjects in depth as fast as I once did.

I’m glad I learned OS in depth during high school via Gentoo linux. And engineering/physics/math in college. It’s very easy to assimilate any new knowledge which can be understood through those areas of first principles.

But learning more advanced math is quite a task now.

by nerdsniper

2/16/2026 at 9:50:23 PM

Can you really say that unless you switched fields multiple times? Of course you'll pick up on math and physics faster in high school than in college or postgrad, but that's because the problems get way, way harder as you progress. I've found that even in my late 30s I can still easily pick up new skills outside my field of expertise as long as I start with the basics that could also be picked up by a high-schooler. I started learning a new language last year and thanks to modern study apps, I actually find it easier today. Of course it will still take a long time to become an expert, but I'm not sure it would need more total hours than if I had started 20 years ago. It just gets more difficult to allocate the necessary hours for learning.

by sigmoid10

2/17/2026 at 2:48:27 AM

> I've found that even in my late 30s I can still easily pick up new skills outside my field of expertise as long as I start with the basics that could also be picked up by a high-schooler.

this was rather famously the technique of Jonas Salk to learn and master things, switch fields every so often, giving you a wide base of disciplines to apply to new fields.

by bryanrasmussen

2/16/2026 at 10:00:10 PM

> Can you really say that unless you switched fields multiple times?

I have ;-) far too many times! Even going back and taking undergrad math coursework that my engineering curriculum didn't have like Discrete Math or Statistics got a lot harder than calculus / differential equations was when I was younger. I felt like I got less out of each hour, and also couldn't put in as many hours - not just because I have more responsibilities, but also because my brain just gets tired after fewer hours.

by nerdsniper

2/17/2026 at 12:57:23 AM

ooc, what are the modern study apps that you used?

by zyx_db

2/16/2026 at 10:16:40 PM

I don't know - i'm 33 ~ now - recently with AI learning is much easier - don't get me wrong I definitely won't say that the brain does not slow down - but I'd definitely argue that we have advantages over kids - be it discipline, knowing how to learn ; and stuff like that - for example let's take coq which is I suppose one of the hardest thing we can learn - you can decompose it in ways myself as a kid or as a 20yo wouldn't even be able to. What I mean is that there is a lot of complexities or stuff i would get stuck upon that I just fly over today and know I'm alright - much better ability to focus in a sense

by 6r17

2/16/2026 at 10:24:44 PM

I learned coq as a teenager because the name was funny and one defined everything in terms of the `succ` function.

Never underestimate our motivation.

by jjmarr

2/16/2026 at 11:09:22 PM

Continuing to do things only because they’re funny as an adult is one of life’s little treats!

by knotimpressed

2/16/2026 at 10:46:48 PM

Gentoo is what really made Linux click for me, too. I'm still very, very glad for that and remain a loyal user to this day!

Although I've had to restrict it to the 2 desktop machines. Maybe I should give it a shot again on the laptops, now that binary packages are universally available...

by avhception

2/16/2026 at 11:40:57 PM

I had to learn and relearn a lot at 30-31. It was good. But it was not good at 27 for example. Learning new is habit. Hard to start, bur goes fast.

by dlahoda

2/16/2026 at 10:26:06 PM

I'm learning better now the older I get. More good'erer.

by globalnode

2/17/2026 at 2:19:01 AM

> I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 origami folds once, but I fear the man who has practiced one fold 10,000 times

by kortex

2/17/2026 at 3:13:49 AM

People do tend to be pretty good at things they been doing for almost half their life!

by BobbyTables2

2/17/2026 at 1:10:08 AM

I wonder what was happening 6 years ago that gave him a chance to develop and explore the hobby.

by ear7h

2/16/2026 at 9:16:17 PM

Also don't get hung up on "folded". He hasn't innovated a design (it was invented by a Japanese astrophysicist, Miura-Ori), merely measured sustainable load across different designs.

by uoaei

2/16/2026 at 9:44:48 PM

Don't get hug up on "invented". Ruth Asawa registered for (1956) and received US patent 185,504 on June 16, 1959 at the suggestion of her professor, Buckminster Fuller.

https://theartian.com/ruth-asawa-patent-collaboration/

by adfm

2/16/2026 at 11:25:30 PM

Don't get hung up on "patent". You can't patent an idea, you patent a specific implementation of an idea.

The boy experimented to find the optimal parameters (height, width, angles) for load bearing of that earlier invention.

So, the result of his work would warrant a new patent, of course with reference to all earlier patents of which his work is an improvement.

by Centrino

2/17/2026 at 12:29:00 AM

You can even spend time and money to acquire a patent and it still doesn’t guarantee profit. It’s called the Miura-ori even though it was patented decades earlier. In this case, the patent acts as a record emphasizing that it’s all been done before.

by adfm

2/16/2026 at 9:58:24 PM

i hear he didn't even produce the paper himself

by croisillon

2/16/2026 at 9:45:41 PM

He literally did fold all the folds himself. He didn't even get an LLM to reskin VS Code for him and apply to Y Combinator.

by ForHackernews

2/17/2026 at 3:08:19 AM

"To reduce human errors in his experiments, Wu opted to use a scoring machine to accurately fold the origami patterns."

by jacobolus

2/16/2026 at 9:51:38 PM

Being able to hold 10x the weight of paper doesn't sound so impressive that it would require an astrophysicist to invent it.

I was more ready to accept the headline if it had been invented by the kid.

Are you telling me you can't roll up 10 origami papers and stand them on a reasonably stable origami pattern?

by avadodin

2/16/2026 at 9:52:59 PM

it's 10k, 10,000, not 10

by retube

2/16/2026 at 10:19:10 PM

lol

that makes way more sense

not enough coffee bcak

by avadodin

2/16/2026 at 11:40:05 PM

Problem Exists Between Coffee And Keyboard? I can relate. :D

by taneq

2/16/2026 at 9:28:07 PM

"Miura" is the name of the astrophysicist. "Ori" (折り) just means "fold", as in "origami" = "fold+paper".

by nine_k

2/17/2026 at 1:54:04 AM

You should pay attention to the fact that his parents are rich and educated enough to figure out submarine marketing for him. Winning a major national level science fair plays a pretty big role in college admissions and having the press trumpet his achievements ensures that he will have an easier path to get future internships and other type of prestigious if-you-know-you-know type of positions (who knows, maybe he might apply to YC too in a few years).

by Onavo

2/17/2026 at 1:07:44 AM

I'm sure nothing of significance was happening about 6 years ago that allowed for more free time either... :)

by _joel

2/16/2026 at 9:48:04 PM

[flagged]

by dottjt

2/16/2026 at 9:59:40 PM

> isn't this more a trait of autism than anything else?

No. It’s a sign of drive and discipline.

The latter, specifically the focus element, overlaps with autism. But more broadly it does not. (There are a lot of impressive teenagers applying themselves diligently to impressive ends. Most of them are not on the spectrum, though I suspect mild autism is slightly over-represented in that set.)

by JumpCrisscross

2/16/2026 at 9:56:39 PM

And this is all you can come up with this story?

by dbacar

2/16/2026 at 9:50:57 PM

Not all autism presents with intense narrow interests, and not all expressions of intense narrow interest are autism.

Would you say the same for a teenage sports prodigy?

by anonym29

2/16/2026 at 9:53:08 PM

Of course. But obviously I wouldn't be referring to those other types of autism in this case. Why would I?

by dottjt

2/16/2026 at 10:53:55 PM

You're assuming that autism is always going to be a disadvantage. In fact, the obsessive focus mirrors scientific practice. Good luck to him, I respect him.

by nephihaha

2/16/2026 at 10:00:52 PM

The key here is scale. What works in inches often falls apart at feet. The structure is holding about 33 psi over the area (which is rigidly supported from below), much more along the contact edges. By comparison balsa wood can support significantly more pressure (varies, but well over 100psi) but doesn’t concentrate pressure on edges.

Is there anything useful about this? Maybe as an inexpensive(?) core for high strength skins?

by mlhpdx

2/17/2026 at 1:45:32 AM

Improved cardboard shipping boxes.

If I can make the shipping boxes less fragile with same amount of paper as current cardboard box designs, it is a win.

by WaitWaitWha

2/16/2026 at 10:05:12 PM

> The key here is scale. What works in inches often falls apart at feet

Does that mean we could increase the orders of magnitude if we made it smaller? Lots of tiny stuff needs mechanical support. And lots of folded small things agglomerated is another way to say biology.

by JumpCrisscross

2/16/2026 at 10:33:52 PM

Closer to "mineralogy", plenty of things are both smaller and tougher (on this "support its own weight" metric) than cells or proteins with their squishy folding rules.

Even if we include things like hydroxyapatite in teeth, or even lignin, those are more like byproducts of biology than active biology itself.

by Terr_

2/17/2026 at 2:30:17 AM

> plenty of things are both smaller and tougher (on this "support its own weight" metric) than cells or proteins with their squishy folding rules

I was thinking microscopic versus nanoscale. Folding something out of a flat material is probably cheaper than machining it, and if it's stronger than additively manufacturing it you have applications in medical devices and aerospace for starters.

by JumpCrisscross

2/16/2026 at 10:58:24 PM

> Is there anything useful about this?

Directly: no, the end of the article has a nice list of reasons why, somewhat hidden

(ex. "Actual shelters...need to respond to multidirectional loads" = these were tested with load in one direction)

Miles, if you're reading this, it's useful. You're already doing what .1% of people do. I call them journeys and emphasize they're a million steps without clear direction, and if you're lucky, maybe positive feedback along the way. You're just on step N < 1,000,000. This works out, in some way, you already know it's not literally "yes this is sooo useful that we should start autofolding it at 1000x scale". It will work out. maybe as exactly this, this with some tweaks, or the $25K helps you do $X, or the publicity helps you do $Y.

by refulgentis

2/17/2026 at 2:15:22 AM

Yes, a young scientist gaining momentum.

by jasondigitized

2/16/2026 at 11:19:23 PM

This is very cool, but I don't really see the direct connection between a paper structure which is very strong in compression and emergency accommodation (which the article really focuses on).

Tents don't need to be strong in compression - there's no weight on the roof. And obviously paper is not a material that scales up or would be practical for outdoor use.

Just a bit confused by the obvious mismatch here - maybe it's the journalist putting more weight on the disaster application than the kid did.

by stevage

2/16/2026 at 11:55:01 PM

Most tents are in fact not very strong in compression unless designed for snow. If you do get a big snow you need to wake up in the night and remove the snow so it doesn't crush the tent.

by s0rce

2/17/2026 at 1:09:25 AM

I thought it was about the compressability of the material to save space, perhaps?

by _joel

2/16/2026 at 9:49:26 PM

I remember cutting an IKEA desk top down one side and discovering the inside was just corrugated cardboard under a few layers of laminate. it was trivial to break by shearing it but in a typical construction where the weight is mostly up/down it was obviously sufficient - until you cut the rigid sides off that is...

While this probably does have incredible Z-axis strength, I can't imagine it being very strong with any kind of lateral loads.

by tgtweak

2/16/2026 at 10:32:42 PM

That the construction method of most hollow-core doors in your house.

by jnellis

2/16/2026 at 11:04:18 PM

This design is terrible for desks, they all end up sagging after a few years of use. Their "SANDSBERG" kitchen table is a much better choice for a desk, no cardboard and metal reinforced

by lm28469

2/17/2026 at 3:35:40 AM

Pretty cool, good for him. My Thermo Fisher bottle opener is a prized possession. Much like those cancer center ash trays.

by wileydragonfly

2/16/2026 at 10:30:37 PM

Does this shape hold up good weight distribution properties when 3D-printed? Maybe this could be huge for 3D-printing mostly hollow, yet strong parts that require in fewer plastic and time spent.

by dietr1ch

2/16/2026 at 10:44:09 PM

That’s already a thing. Infill. There’s lots of variations of infill that all have different strengths and weaknesses.

by sen

2/17/2026 at 1:03:27 AM

There is also 3d printing origami shapes [1]. But 3D printing is still plastic(usually).

The idea of origami steel sheets has stuck on my mind ever since I found out about laser welding. Cutting thin 2mm sheets of steel, stitching them back together in different shapes, and holding tons of weight? That sounds very compelling to me.

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNVBK7-h9Fs

by emporas

2/17/2026 at 2:33:56 AM

Anyone knows how does 3D printed metals compare to CNC-made parts?

I know it's been used to build engines, which suggests they are strong, but there's also all this process around ancient swords around tempering, folding, etc that suggests that maybe just 3D-printing metals might result in weaker structures.

by dietr1ch

2/16/2026 at 8:48:07 PM

Fun when these things hold a surprising amount of weight. Reminds me when these two engineers on Lego Masters made a bridge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9WT6TB15yE

by pants2

2/16/2026 at 9:25:49 PM

wtf, why lego, whhhy? "The uploader has not made this video available in your country"

edit: What, they geoblocked a ~1min clip, wow.

by sysworld

2/16/2026 at 9:32:04 PM

I live in the U.S.: I can watch it.

What is "your country?"

by bookofjoe

2/16/2026 at 9:52:57 PM

It's Lego Masters USA (Fox), rather than the Lego company itself, so I imagine they're being extra-careful with licensing.

I'm in the UK and it's geoblocked for me.

by abanana

2/17/2026 at 12:37:41 AM

I'd be curious what kind of variation there was across his 54 different designs. If he's discovered the existence of a narrow window where strength dramatically increases, that seems a much more interesting find than if this whole family of origami patterns is knowns to perform well and this variant just happened to be slightly better than the rest. It's exciting to think that there may be super strong designs just waiting to be found with a little bit of rigorous refinement.

by jjk166

2/17/2026 at 12:30:31 AM

There's something about this that stands out as very concerning for me.

This, clearly very clever, young man is 14 years old. The article says: "Wu had always been fascinated with the ancient Japanese art of origami, but he really began indulging in it as a hobby about six years ago."

At eight. He was *indulging* in a hobby at eight years old. Indulging in a hobby should be a pre-retirement activity. What an incredible weight the attitude of the writer puts on kids.

by ktoo_

2/17/2026 at 1:25:13 AM

> Indulging in a hobby should be a pre-retirement activity

I don't think indulge means what you think it means.

by thunky

2/17/2026 at 2:01:41 AM

I apologise for you misunderstanding my example as a strict definition?

For anyone who hasn't understood my meaning:

Indulge is a word that implies that you're allowing yourself something that you might not ordinarily. The point being: it is (or should be) silly to suggest that a child can be said to indulge in a hobby. This is because the further implication is that an eight year old might show some restraint and focus on their book learning and networking.

by ktoo_

2/16/2026 at 9:14:13 PM

So what is the ideal pattern and how can you build a shelter with it?

I think it would be fun to build a playhouse out of it.

by MagicMoonlight

2/17/2026 at 1:03:13 AM

Whats unique or special about these particular tessellations? My students have been making similar ones for 10 years (and googled them)

by thenthenthen

2/17/2026 at 1:44:24 AM

> Whats unique or special about these particular tessellations?

1. He talked about them to people who were interested in listening.

2. He was able to apply the knowledge he gained for his specific task in a variety of team tasks at the event.

by csa

2/16/2026 at 9:11:40 PM

Triangles together strong!

by PunchyHamster

2/16/2026 at 9:59:13 PM

Looks kinda like an egg carton to me. So if an empty egg carton weighs 50g, that's like saying you could stack 500kg on top. Pretty impressive.

by hooloovoo_zoo

2/16/2026 at 8:49:57 PM

Could concept be applied to submarine vehicles to exponential increase their resistance to pressure at depth?

by ck2

2/17/2026 at 3:32:45 AM

Exponential in relation to what other value?

Adding 1 to _____ causes a doubling of resistance to pressure, adding 2 is a quadrupling, adding 3 is an octupling, what goes in the blank?

by Dylan16807

2/16/2026 at 11:22:40 PM

Unfortunately it stops working when the paper gets wet. ;)

by layer8

2/16/2026 at 9:04:07 PM

This is weight distribution on a flat plain. Think of Roman Arches. On a curved plain, weight distribution of THIS origami falls apart as pressure is added horizontally (not just vertically).

by codeddesign

2/16/2026 at 10:17:28 PM

Ugh, emergency shelter? We already have 50 million emergency shelter designs. It's ok to say this has no practical uses but is very cool.

by IshKebab

2/16/2026 at 10:58:41 PM

> It's ok to say this has no practical uses but is very cool.

Agreed. But it doesn't go viral as much. Every cool robotics research goes with a comment that says "it could be useful for disaster response in a post-apocalyptic world where the conditions have changed in such a way that only my robot can save us".

by palata

2/17/2026 at 12:43:23 AM

It's a science fair project. It's part of the rubric. More broadly it's a scène à faire (an obligatory genre trope) for academic writing.

by maxbond

2/16/2026 at 10:51:39 PM

It can hold a considerable amount of weight then that may have application for areas where sand, snow or even rocks may be a problem

by nephihaha

2/16/2026 at 10:59:13 PM

I wish the parents could be given a bit of credit. Instead we pretend the kid was doing this all solo... Its way less impressive when the parents are guiding them.

But the parents are doing lots of unappreciated work here.

/parent here

by PlatoIsADisease

2/16/2026 at 11:04:53 PM

Agreed, but then it makes the whole thing a lot less impressive and it doesn't get viral.

Parents or a teacher most likely guided this kid to empirically measure how much weight a known origami fold can hold. I mean I remember that we were guided to do similar experiments at school when I was the same age... I don't remember making the news for "14-year olds empirically confirm Newton's law" :-).

by palata

2/17/2026 at 2:00:43 AM

It's individualist exceptionalism taken to modern extremes. I remember having these sorts of science assignment in middle school, one with dried pasta with textbooks, and another with dropping egg safely in a box. Invariably the winners won (me and my partner) because our dads had "advice" when we got home and they saw what we were playing with. Winning in my experience was the most corrosive part of those experiences because I literally did not come up with the solution.

by calf

2/16/2026 at 9:50:36 PM

Smart teen :)

by SilentM68

2/16/2026 at 9:57:43 PM

what if, instead you just placed whatever weight you wanted onto a flat unfolded piece of paper.

by Aeroi

2/16/2026 at 10:25:32 PM

what a smart kid! wishing him all the best

by moomoo11

2/16/2026 at 8:18:48 PM

Where can we read about the other submissions?

by amelius

2/16/2026 at 9:28:07 PM

[dead]

by darig

2/16/2026 at 8:56:07 PM

[flagged]

by tl2do

2/16/2026 at 9:58:33 PM

These teen science fair winners almost never amount to anything exceptional, and are a product intense parental supervision. Most universities have wised up.

by xqcgrek2

2/16/2026 at 10:49:51 PM

Sometimes, but I do find his story inspiring. He has taken an age old craft and demonstrated it may have practical applications. I hope he can patent some design based off this and then he can make some money off it. (Yes, I know he didn't invent this particular fold.)

by nephihaha

2/16/2026 at 11:00:55 PM

> Yes, I know he didn't invent this particular fold

So how could he patent it?

I join the parent: it's a kid who empirically evaluated how much weight an existing fold can hold. It's not like he solved a hundred years old mathematical problem.

by palata

2/16/2026 at 11:03:13 PM

That evaluation has value and the possible use case of strong and cheap emergency housing is interesting though it sounds like it would take substantial work to push it to fruition and would need to be competitive with existing solutions.

by tehjoker

2/16/2026 at 11:13:11 PM

Did you have a look at the pictures in the article? How would you build housing with that fold?

by palata