A. Although the ancient Japanese art of origami dates back hundreds of years, its great usefulness in engineering and math has only been fully recognized since the 1960s. At first, people viewed it just as a creative hobby, but now the exact shapes of folding paper are being used to solve difficult building problems. In recent decades, engineers have used these folding methods to design tiny medical devices, like tubes that expand inside the body, as well as large robots that can build themselves. As a result, scientists have increasingly turned to the strict rules of origami to create materials that can change their shape while remaining incredibly strong.
B. One of the most famous historical patterns in this field is the Miura-ori fold, a technique named after its inventor, the Japanese space scientist Koryo Miura. This specific pattern relies on a series of repeating diamond shapes that allow a large, flat surface to be folded or unfolded completely in one smooth motion. Famous for its use in space engineering, the Miura-ori fold was notably used to create highly efficient, compact solar panels for Japan's Space Flyer Unit, which launched in 1995. By folding a very large sheet of material into a highly compressed, flat shape, engineers can greatly reduce the size of equipment sent into space.
C. Recently, these space designs inspired a 14-year-old student named Miles Wu to rethink the problems of disaster relief here on Earth. In late 2024, as wildfires burned through Southern California and Hurricane Helene hit Florida, Wu noticed a major flaw in existing emergency shelters. While traditional emergency tents were often sturdy, or cheap, or easy to set up, they were almost never all three at the same time. Recognizing this three-part problem, the young researcher guessed that the strong, folding nature of the Miura-ori pattern could be used to create fast-setting emergency tents capable of surviving extreme weather.
D. To test if his idea would work, Wu transformed his family’s living room in New York City into a temporary testing lab. Using computer software, he designed 54 unique versions of the Miura-ori fold, carefully changing details such as the height, width, and exact angles of the shapes. To remove human error in the folding process, he used a machine to precisely fold three different types of paper—standard copy paper, light card, and heavy card. He then placed each 64-square-inch pattern between two rails and systematically piled heavy objects onto the paper structures to calculate their strength-to-weight ratio.
E. The test results of these 108 trials were far better than anyone expected when it came to the strength of folded paper. Wu initially assumed the best geometric pattern would collapse under roughly 50 pounds of textbooks. Surprisingly, the best Miura-ori patterns easily supported up to 200 pounds, forcing the researcher to buy heavy iron exercise weights to finish the tests. Ultimately, Wu discovered a specific mathematical version of the fold that could successfully hold more than 10,000 times its own weight—a ratio similar to a standard car supporting the combined weight of several thousand large animals.
F. This careful testing earned Wu the top prize at the 2025 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. Maya Ajmera, the CEO of the Society for Science, noted that the judging panel was particularly impressed by the project's focus on helping the community, and by Wu's great flexibility during the competition's live challenges, where he successfully used origami rules to build parts of a robotic arm under strict time limits. The ability to turn an ancient, beautiful art form into highly useful, everyday engineering solutions set his research apart from other students.
G. Despite these laboratory successes, professional engineers warn that making paper models large enough for humans to live in presents entirely new engineering challenges. Glaucio H. Paulino, an engineering professor at Princeton University, emphasizes that origami properties do not increase evenly as they get bigger. As the structure increases in size, architects must plan for wind blowing from different directions, materials bending, and the strength of the joints connecting the folded sides. Acknowledging these specific details, Wu's next goal is to build full-scale models—such as curved arches and tent-like shapes—to test how well the structures survive these multidirectional forces.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B–G from the list of headings below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A, B, C, or D.