Phoenix, Ariz. — Origami is the Japanese art of paper-folding. But Mother Nature has developed her own examples of this art, says Hikaru Kuribayashi. To demonstrate, the 17-year-old picks up his model of a ladybug wing and opens it flat. This teen has just found a new way to model every possible motion such folded structures can make.
For this discovery, Hikaru received the George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award and $100,000 here on May 15. A student at Sapporo Kaisei Secondary School in Japan, Hikaru was a finalist in the 2026 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, or ISEF. An annual competition since 1950, ISEF was created by and is still run by the Society for Science (which also publishes this magazine). Hikaru’s research also took first place in the physics category, which earned him another $6,000.
Scientists Say: Model
The teen’s new understanding of origami can let engineers copy many of nature’s designs. Imagine a leaf unfolding. Those leaves, Hikaru says, represent a famous origami pattern call...
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