ABOUT COSMIC LOG

Quantum fluctuations in space, science, exploration and other cosmic fields... served up regularly by MSNBC.com science editor Alan Boyle since 2002.

Alan Boyle covers the physical sciences, anthropology, technological innovation and space science and exploration for MSNBC.com. He is a winner of the AAAS Science Journalism Award, the NASW Science-in-Society Award and other honors; a contributor to "A Field Guide for Science Writers"; and a member of the board of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

Check out Boyle's biography or send a message to Cosmic Log via cosmiclog@msnbc.com.



Weekend field trips on the Web

Posted: Friday, March 14, 2008 6:38 PM by Alan Boyle

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Hi, Alan - the pictures of that 'magical substance' or royal jelly also shows that honeycomb 'hexagonal' cells are sometimes 'round.'

Actually, examining the honeycomb's structure shows that the worker bee, in building each cell, deposits the wax by turning in a circle, the diameter determined by the length of the bee's body.  The compression resulting from adjacent cell construction along with the heat within the hive makes the wax pliable enough to then form hexagon shapes.

Any circle, surrounded by similarly-sized circles, will automatically form the hexagon shape.  The honeybee's geometry is just another one of nature's responses to its own reality.


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