Origami, the ancient art form solving modern problems | Miles Wu

**Elise Hu** (0:04)
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu.
For 14-year-old Miles Wu, it all starts with a simple piece of paper.

**Miles Wu** (0:16)
No matter what, I'm always folding. Give me any scrap of paper, and I'll challenge myself to turn it into something. It's this process of turning nothing into something that sparks my imagination and draws me to origami.

**Elise Hu** (0:30)
Miles is an origami innovator who's been folding paper into intricate shapes and patterns since he was seven years old. He's gotten into trouble in class for turning his worksheets into ninja stars, and has raised more than $4,000 for his community, one folded pigeon at a time.
But in this talk, he focuses on how that same playful curiosity led him somewhere he didn't expect, into the intersection of origami and science.

**Miles Wu** (0:58)
Origami is fun, but playing with paper has also shown me that origami has the power to stretch my creativity, help others, and even lead to new discoveries.
It's amazing that something can be so strong and yet so lightweight at the same time. And it's exciting to think about what potential applications a fold like this could have.

**Elise Hu** (1:18)
This is what it looks like when curiosity doesn't wait for permission. And stick around after the talk, we caught up with TED's curator, Chloe Shasha Brooks, who shared a few more thoughts on what it was like to work with Miles and takeaways on the ideas he offers. That's all coming up right after a short break.
And now, our TED Talk of the day.

**Miles Wu** (1:48)
I love origami. I love the way I can transform a simple piece of paper into almost anything, like a wheel bug, my grandparents, or even a neuron cell. I'm 14 years old, I live in New York City, and I'm in ninth grade, so I'm usually busy with homework or after school activities. But in my free time, I really enjoy doing origami. Origami is fun, but playing with paper has also shown me that origami has the power to stretch my creativity, help others, and even lead to new discoveries. And today, I'd like to share one small discovery that I made, and how I got there. So I started folding origami over seven years ago, making ornaments for my family's tiny Christmas tree, and getting in trouble in class for turning my work sheets into ninja stars and paper claws.
As you can imagine, my teachers were less than overjoyed, but I told them I was making academic weapons.
Over time, I began folding more complex origami, and even designing my own models. But no matter what, I'm always folding. Give me any scrap of paper, and I'll challenge myself to turn it into something. For example, if I'm waiting in line at Trader Joe's, I might turn a sample cup into a crane. Or even a super long CVS receipt into a centipede. Or even the New York Times into a lizard. And it's this process of turning nothing into something that sparks my imagination and draws me to origami. I've also found that origami has a power to help others. During the pandemic, eight-year-old me wrote cards and mailed origami birds to seniors at my local nursing home to cheer them up during quarantine. And more recently, I've been folding even more origami birds. Two years ago, I folded some origami pigeons. By some, I mean 200 of them.
If you couldn't tell, pigeons are my favorite birds. And then the following year, I folded sparrows, another bird that's overlooked but I personally love. And I folded 100 of them and sold them alongside the pigeons to raise over $4,000 to donate to my local soup kitchen, as well as a nonprofit that rehabilitates injured and orphaned birds in New York City. Thanks a lot.
And so through this project, I was able to see the power of the most humble material, a simple piece of paper, to really help my community. More recently, I've been interested in the intersection of origami and science and engineering. I think it started in middle school when I began going down rabbit holes to see how scientists and researchers and engineers were using origami folds, for example, in space or even to help sick people.

**Elise Hu** (4:40)
Elise here jumping in real quick to describe the images Miles has just shared on screen. On the left, we see an origami creation that looks like a flower. And on the right, an image of a NASA star shade in space that's clearly mimicking the origami shape.
Then we see a picture of a cylinder origami creation called a water bomb tessellation. And on the right, a picture of a cardiac stent used in surgery that's clearly based on the geometric structure and patterns built with paper.