Title is misleading: he did not discover the pattern, he "measured the weight that Miura-ori origami patterns can hold across various benchmarks". This pattern is not new.
And then I really don't get the "disaster relief" part: how would this help build solid tents? If you lay the pattern flat on the ground, sure it holds a lot of weight. But instead of this pattern, if you pile up stuff directly on the ground, usually it holds very well too...
Then could you build a wall with that structure? Not clear to me how that would help. And it doesn't seem like it would hold on a flat roof.
It's nice that a 14yo systematically tested a structure and all, and good for him for winning a competition. But it seems a bit exagerated to say that he discovered a pattern that could help for disaster relief.
Flat pack (container) and drags out to 100's of meters. This has military purposes, but there are immediate other potential applications without even squinting that hard.
Considering that there seems to be a 1:1 ad-paragraph relationship in BI’s article’s, I can’t disagree. Anymore BI links, and I’m going to have to water-cool my Pi-Hole.
Title is misleading: he did not discover the pattern, he "measured the weight that Miura-ori origami patterns can hold across various benchmarks". This pattern is not new.
And then I really don't get the "disaster relief" part: how would this help build solid tents? If you lay the pattern flat on the ground, sure it holds a lot of weight. But instead of this pattern, if you pile up stuff directly on the ground, usually it holds very well too...
Then could you build a wall with that structure? Not clear to me how that would help. And it doesn't seem like it would hold on a flat roof.
It's nice that a 14yo systematically tested a structure and all, and good for him for winning a competition. But it seems a bit exagerated to say that he discovered a pattern that could help for disaster relief.
See this "HESCO deployment" video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R16lvnKBipM
Flat pack (container) and drags out to 100's of meters. This has military purposes, but there are immediate other potential applications without even squinting that hard.
Cardboard beds for refugee camps: https://newatlas.com/good-thinking/ingenious-cardboard-bed/
Fold-down (from wall) stairs: https://sawmillstructures.com/product/stair-wall-fold-flat-w...
Cardboard honeycomb packaging cushioning: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Honeycomb-Cushion-Wra...
...and some of the OG uses of the same "Miura fold" for deploying solar panels in outer space: https://old.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/cbzjp...
(in my nerdier days, I used to re-fold tourist maps using this technique so it'd "auto-open/close")
Bridges?
Business Insider is a slop website these days.
Considering that there seems to be a 1:1 ad-paragraph relationship in BI’s article’s, I can’t disagree. Anymore BI links, and I’m going to have to water-cool my Pi-Hole.
Miles Wu placed first in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. The top 30 finalists are listed here: https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-project-showcase/