| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2023 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Biological Materials Science
|
| Presentation Title |
Unraveling the Construction of Hexagonal Cells in the Apis mellifera Honeycomb Using Time-Resolved X-ray Microscopy (XRM) |
| Author(s) |
Rahul Franklin, Brock A. Harpur, Nikhilesh Chawla |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Rahul Franklin |
| Abstract Scope |
Honeycomb has fascinated humans for millennia. It is a naturally engineered structure that serves as storage for the bees, a place for the queen to lay eggs, rear their brood, among a multitude of additional functions. Even though honeycomb construction has been studied, results have been limited to two-dimensional and surface-level observations. X-ray microscopy is a very powerful tool to characterize structures in three-dimensions non-destructively. When a time element is added, one can obtain valuable data in four-dimensions (4D). In this study, through 4D X-ray microscopy, many fundamental questions related to how bees build hexagonal cells were answered. Hexagonal cells were seen to grow additively, directly based on a preformed hexagonal pattern formed on the central spine of the comb. Further, several seminal but previously unreported features were observed such as the formation of a corrugated spine of the comb and alternating porosity on it. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Biomaterials, Characterization, Other |