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.
nerdsniper 59 minutes ago [-]
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.
6r17 21 minutes ago [-]
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
jjmarr 13 minutes ago [-]
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.
sigmoid10 47 minutes ago [-]
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.
nerdsniper 38 minutes ago [-]
> 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.
globalnode 12 minutes ago [-]
I'm learning better now the older I get. More good'erer.
uoaei 1 hours ago [-]
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.
adfm 53 minutes ago [-]
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.
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?
retube 45 minutes ago [-]
it's 10k, 10,000, not 10
avadodin 19 minutes ago [-]
lol
that makes way more sense
not enough coffee bcak
croisillon 39 minutes ago [-]
i hear he didn't even produce the paper himself
ForHackernews 52 minutes ago [-]
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.
nine_k 1 hours ago [-]
"Miura" is the name of the astrophysicist. "Ori" (折り) just means "fold", as in "origami" = "fold+paper".
dottjt 50 minutes ago [-]
Rather than age, isn't this more a trait of autism than anything else?
JumpCrisscross 38 minutes ago [-]
> 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.)
24 minutes ago [-]
anonym29 47 minutes ago [-]
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?
dottjt 45 minutes ago [-]
Of course. But obviously I wouldn't be referring to those other types of autism in this case. Why would I?
dbacar 41 minutes ago [-]
And this is all you can come up with this story?
mlhpdx 37 minutes ago [-]
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?
JumpCrisscross 33 minutes ago [-]
> 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.
Terr_ 4 minutes ago [-]
[delayed]
dietr1ch 7 minutes ago [-]
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.
tgtweak 48 minutes ago [-]
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.
jnellis 5 minutes ago [-]
That the construction method of most hollow-core doors in your house.
wtf, why lego, whhhy? "The uploader has not made this video available in your country"
edit: What, they geoblocked a ~1min clip, wow.
bookofjoe 1 hours ago [-]
I live in the U.S.: I can watch it.
What is "your country?"
abanana 45 minutes ago [-]
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.
PunchyHamster 1 hours ago [-]
Triangles together strong!
IshKebab 20 minutes ago [-]
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.
moomoo11 12 minutes ago [-]
what a smart kid! wishing him all the best
ck2 2 hours ago [-]
Could concept be applied to submarine vehicles to exponential increase their resistance to pressure at depth?
codeddesign 2 hours ago [-]
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).
Aeroi 40 minutes ago [-]
what if, instead you just placed whatever weight you wanted onto a flat unfolded piece of paper.
SilentM68 47 minutes ago [-]
Smart teen :)
amelius 2 hours ago [-]
Where can we read about the other submissions?
nuclearnicer 2 hours ago [-]
It looks like the top 10% from 6th to 8th grade Society of Science fairs are invited to participate. They are then selected down to a top 300[1] and a top 30.[2] You can find a project name for the top 300 and a paragraph on each of the top 30.
These teen science fair winners almost never amount to anything exceptional, and are a product intense parental supervision. Most universities have wised up.
Rendered at 22:37:42 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
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.
Never underestimate our motivation.
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.
https://theartian.com/ruth-asawa-patent-collaboration/
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?
that makes way more sense
not enough coffee bcak
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.)
Would you say the same for a teenage sports prodigy?
Is there anything useful about this? Maybe as an inexpensive(?) core for high strength skins?
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.
While this probably does have incredible Z-axis strength, I can't imagine it being very strong with any kind of lateral loads.
14yo won $25k for origami that holds 10k times its weight - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46106871 - Dec 2025 (9 comments)
I think it would be fun to build a playhouse out of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miura_fold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9WT6TB15yE
edit: What, they geoblocked a ~1min clip, wow.
What is "your country?"
I'm in the UK and it's geoblocked for me.
[1] https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-top-300-junior-in... [2] https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-finalists/
https://www.societyforscience.org/jic/2025-project-showcase/