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Bees fly from flower to flower, sipping nectar and collecting grains of pollen. Bees have a special tongue that sucks up the nectar and a crop in their throat for storing it until they get back to the hive, where it is turned into honey to use as food.

 

THEIR STING HAS SOME BENEFITS : A toxin in bee venom called melittin may prevent HIV. Melittin can kill HIV by poking holes into the virus's protective envelope. 

 

THEY WORK HARDER THAN YOU : During chillier seasons, worker bees can live for nine months. But in the summer, they rarely last longer than six weeks—they literally work themselves to death. 

 

 WHEN THEY CHANGE JOBS, THEY CHANGE THEIR BRAIN CHEMISTRY : Bees are hardwired to do certain jobs. Scout bees, which search for new sources of food, are wired for adventure. Soldier bees, discovered in 2012, work as security guards their whole life. One percent of all middle-aged bees become undertakers—a genetic brain pattern compels them to remove dead bees from the hive.

 

 THEIR BRAINS DEFY TIME : When aging bees do jobs usually reserved for younger members, their brain stops aging. In fact, their brain ages in reverse. 

 

THEY CAN RECOGNIZE HUMAN FACES : Honeybees make out faces the same way we do. They take parts—like eyebrows, lips, and ears—and cobble them together to make out the whole face. It’s called “configular processing,” 

 

THEY HAVE PERSONALITIES : Even in beehives, there are workers and shirkers. Researchers at the University of Illinoisfound that not all bees are interchangeable drones. Some bees are thrill-seekers. Others are a bit more timid.

 

 

THEY CAN SOLVE HAIRY MATHEMATICAL PROBLEMS : Mathematicians call this “traveling salesman problem,” and it can even stump some computers. But for bumblebees, it’s a snap. Researchers at Royal Holloway University in London found that bumblebees fly the shortest route possible between flowers. So far, they’re the only animals known to solve the problem.

 

THEY’RE NATURE’S MOST ECONOMICAL BUILDERS : Almost 2000 years later, Thomas Hales wrote a 19-page mathematical proof showing that, of all the possible structures, honeycombs use the least amount of wax. And not only are honeycombs the most efficient structures in nature—the walls meet at a precise 120-degree angle, a perfect hexagon.

 

THEY’RE JOB CREATORS

Americans consume about 285 million pounds of honey each year. On top of that, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that honeybees pollinate 80 percent of the country’s insect crops—meaning bees pollinate over $20 billion worth of crops each year.