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New research on honeybee comb construction featured in the New York Times

A new paper by CU Boulder computer scientist Orit Peleg and aerospace engineer Francisco López Jiménez has been featured in the New York Times' "Trilobites" column. 

The researchers used 3D-printing and X-ray microscopy to explore how honeybees adapt their comb structures in response to the foundation they're building upon. The findings "shed light on honeybees adaptive comb construction abilities, significant for the biology of self-organized collective behavior, as well as for bio-inspired engineered systems," according to the paper in PLOS Biology. 

But how do so many bees — there can be tens of thousands in a single hive — work together to achieve such mathematical magnificence? How does each worker know what to do with her little piece of wax?

“We’re trying to tackle these questions by creating impossible puzzles for the bees,” said Orit Peleg, an author of the study and an associate professor of computer science at the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Read the full story in the New York Times