Less than 0.1% of the approximately 20,000 known bee species make honey

Native, wild bees are at much greater risk of extinction than honey bees

It is estimated that there are more honey bees, which often compete with native bees for resources, on the planet than at any point in human history. Meanwhile, 40% of invertebrate pollinator species, including wild bees and butterflies, face extinction in the coming decades.

Human beekeeping has been traced back to 7000 BCE

Eighty-seven of the world's leading crops rely on pollination in some way, including 43 that are highly dependent or entirely reliant on it. Without pollinators, key foods such as apples, avocados, and almonds would likely become extinct, pushing entire ecosystems into collapse.

Millions of honeybees are hauled yearly across the US to help pollinate farms

As indigenous pollinator populations dwindle, farmers increasingly rely on commercial honeybees, which truckers often transport during cooler periods to prevent die-off from overheating. Pollinating all the almond trees in California requires 85% to 90% of all honeybees available to pollinate in the country.

South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are most at risk from falling pollinator numbers

Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that declines in pollinator populations would lead to higher rates of nutritional deficiencies, particularly in developing nations. Nations with large populations, such as China and India, would also be significantly impacted.

US honeybee colony loss remains a concern, despite rebounding from the mid-2000s CCD

In the winter of 2006-07, worker honeybees began mysteriously disappearing from hives—a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder—triggering the loss of as many as 90% of hives. The lack of dead bees found near hives and the declining prevalence of CCD since then have made finding a single cause challenging.

What's so special about Mayan bees and their honey?

Melipona honey was utilized by the ancient Maya and produced by stingless bees located in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. With a history dating over three millennia, this honey was traditionally used for medicinal purposes due to its high fructose content and antioxidant properties. Unlike regular honey, Melipona honey is less prone to crystallization and has a distinctive watery texture. Learn more about the honey here.

Ordinary bee larvae can develop into queen bees upon being fed royal jelly

Royal jelly is a protein-rich, yellowish substance produced by worker bees in a honeybee hive. After three days, only a few continue receiving the jelly, which triggers the development of ovaries and other traits not found in workers. The first candidate to emerge becomes queen.

Go inside a real beehive with this interactive

Beehives are where the magic honey-making happens, where thousands of honeybees beat their wings, throw up partially-digested nectar to further purify it into sugars, and make wax. The goings-on of a beehive—the name for a man-made habitat for...

Honeybees vomit nectar into one another's mouths to transform it into honey

Digestive enzymes break down long chains of complex sugars into simple monosaccharides, while the fanning of their wings helps honeybees evaporate water away. This process increases the acidity of the resulting honey, increasing its shelf life when sealed in beeswax.

Identify household beetles with this database

Beetles are the largest order of insects in the world, with over 400,000 described species. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, and in every habitat imaginable, from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains. A small percentage...

Some mosquitoes are key pollinators—and eat disease-carrying mosquitoes

​​There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes, and only a small fraction of them bite humans. They also play vital roles in the ecosystem: One young elephant mosquito, for example, can eat dozens of smaller mosquitoes that bite humans in just one day. Sometimes mosquito-gobbling species are released by humans to control other mosquitoes.

Tracking butterfly migration via the pollen they collect

Trillions of insects migrate around the world each year, but many are too small to track with physical trackers, leaving their migratory routes a mystery. In recent years, scientists have utilized pollen grains collected from butterflies to analyze which plants that pollen originated from—providing substantial data to infer the insect's specific route. Research has shed light on many insects' migrations since, including the Painted Lady butterfly. Read more and see a map here.

California is one of the world’s 35 biodiversity hotspots

The state comprises the hotspot known as the California Floristic Province, where roughly 3,000 species of vascular plants grow—roughly three-fifths of which are found nowhere else in the world (also known as endemic).

All humans share 99.9% of the same DNA

Of the 3 billion base pairs that make up the human genome—the complete set of genetic material for the species—the diversity of humans is the result of variations in about 3 million molecular bases. The closest nonhuman genetic match is the chimp, with 98.8% similar genetics.

These animals are only found in the Amazon rainforest.

The mighty Amazon River and its surrounding rainforest is home to millions of different species of animals, with new ones being discovered regularly.

Three Ebola species are responsible for most large outbreaks of the disease, yet the only approved Ebola vaccine is known to work against just one of them.

'The Bean Belt' is where your morning coffee likely came from

Know how to tell your Java from your Kaffa? This quick explainer of major coffee-growing regions and their flavor characteristics helps. It breaks down the Bean Belt into three major regions: Central and South America; Africa and the Middle East; and Southeast Asia.

Most of the world’s population has difficulty processing lactose—but that’s not an allergy

Lactose intolerance is a digestive condition that occurs when the small intestine has difficulty breaking down lactose, a sugar found in products like milk or cheese, leading to symptoms such as diarrhea or bloating. Almost 70% of the world’s population may have lactose processing issues, particularly in Asia and Africa. This is different from a condition called cow's milk protein allergy—an immune system disorder that can cause hives and anaphylaxis.

There are likely millions of small black holes lurking undetected near us in space

Because black holes are so hard to spot directly, astronomers rely on models of galaxy and star evolution to estimate their population. A recent study used simulations and galactic data to show that about 1% of all matter in the universe is locked inside black holes.

HIV originated in Central and West Africa from a virus in chimpanzees

Researchers believe the virus crossed from chimpanzees to humans through bushmeat practices in the early 20th century, with genetic studies suggesting the most recent common ancestor of the HIV-1 M group, which is responsible for the global AIDS pandemic, emerged around 1910–1930 in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) in the Belgian Congo.

What are the ten largest deserts?

Read this article to learn more about the ten biggest deserts in the world—including what their climates are like, where they can be found, and just how big they actually are. Did you know, for instance, that Antarctica is home to the world’s...

More than 100 types of beer are produced around the world

Beer dates back to ancient times, and since then, the fermented drink has taken on many different styles around the globe, depending on the grain and ingredients used. See how pilsners, IPAs, Sours, and other types evolved from the drink's early history.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Charting the countries with large Sikh populations

While the vast majority of contemporary Sikhs live in Punjab, India, millions have moved elsewhere in the world, especially in anglophone countries. This chart shows which countries host the largest communities of the Sikh diaspora in the world.

The majority of the world's sovereign wealth funds are controlled by nations in Asia and the Middle East

Norway operates the world's single largest sovereign wealth fund, but Asian and Middle Eastern countries operate the rest of the top 10 largest SWFs. The Middle East alone accounts for more than $5T of the world's entire sovereign wealth.

About 99% of Earth's atmosphere is made of nitrogen and oxygen

At 78% and 21% respectively, the two elements are followed by argon with almost 1%. Trace amounts of other molecules, including greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, and particulate matter such as dust and pollen, make up the remainder of the atmosphere's contents.

Nearly all natural rubber comes from cloned trees in Southeast Asia

Synthetic rubbers have been unable to mimic the strength and tolerance to heat and pressure provided by natural rubber. This makes rubber trees essential to major global infrastructure, despite being vulnerable to disease due to a lack of genetic diversity.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight