Honeybees have evolved over time to skillfully build hexagonal honeycomb cells. Why might a hexagon be a suitable shape for storing honey? Could other shapes, such as circles, triangles, or squares, ...

A number of plants disperse their seeds in a rather artistic way: the seed capsules of the ice plant Delosperma nakurense, for instance, unfold lids over the seed compartments in the manner of a ...

Excerpted from Single Digits: In Praise of Small Numbers by Marc Chamberland. Out now from Princeton University Press. What do grocers and honeybees have in common? The obvious answer is that they are ...

Honeycomb lattices and fractal structures are found in a range of biological materials. Now, scientists in the US, the UK and France have combined the two types of pattern to create a strong and ...

Sweet structure For thousands of years, thinkers have marvelled at the feat of engineering that is the honeycomb. Each waxy cell is a perfect hexagon, its six wafer-thin sides providing not only ...