Secrets of bee honeycombs revealed

The mystery of the hexagonal shape of honeycomb cells has been revealed by simple mechanics. The honeybee comb is a widely studied natural cellular structure. The rounded hexagonal shape of its cells has intrigued natural scientists and philosophers for millennia. They have suggested many explanations some of which would need the bees to have an uncanny ability ("forethought" according to Pappus of Alexandria in 4 AD) to perform mathematical calculations or the magical quality to measure lengths and angles. Now research from Cardiff University's School of Engineering, published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface , has found that the cells in a natural honeybee comb have a circular shape at "birth" but quickly transform into the familiar rounded hexagonal shape while the comb is being built. The research led by Professor Bhushan Karihaloo, Cardiff School of Engineering with co-authors from Beijing Institute of Technology and Peking University also shows how this transformation takes place. "People have always speculated how bees have formed these honeycombs," said Professor Karihaloo "There have been some incredible, esoteric, even bizarre explanations; they believed the bees had an uncanny ability to measure angles.