Related topics: bees

Engineers may learn from bees for optimal honeycomb designs

Perfect hexagonal structures inspired by honeycombs in bee nests are widely used to build everything from airplane wings, boats, and cars, to skis, snowboards, packaging and acoustic dampening materials.

Honeybee protein keeps stem cells youthful

An active protein component of royal jelly helps honeybees create new queens. Stanford researchers have identified a similar protein in mammals, which keeps cultured embryonic stem cells pluripotent.

Conflict among honey bee genes supports theory of altruism

Using modern genetic approaches, a team of researchers has provided strong support for the long-standing, but hotly debated, evolutionary theory of kin selection, which suggests that altruistic behavior occurs as a way to ...

Pesticides and adjuvants disrupt honey bee's sense of smell

It has long been known that exposure to pesticide sprays is harmful to honey bees. In a new study, researchers have uncovered the effect of such sprays on the sense of smell in bees, which could disrupt their social signals.

Honey bees may inherit altruistic behavior from their mothers

True altruism is rare behavior in animals, but a new study by Penn State researchers has found that honey bees display this trait. Additionally, they found that an evolutionary battle of genetics may determine the parent ...

How proteins roll the dice to determine bee sex

To date it has been unclear exactly how the sex of a bee is determined. A research team from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) including biologists and chemists has now identified a key gene and the molecular mechanism ...

Probiotics positively influence honeybee health, study shows

Widespread pesticide-use and diminished floral diversity in the environment have contributed to the worsening susceptibility of honeybees to infectious disease, threatening their support of adequate pollination of food crops. ...

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