You’ve probably heard that bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly. Their dinky wings shouldn’t be able to lift up their roly-poly bodies.
So they’re essentially breaking the laws of physics, according to an accusation two French entomologists first published in the 1930s. It wasn’t until 2005 that scientists at Cal Tech finally figured out the math and solved the mystery. To some, their discovery felt a little deflating, as if a magician had revealed the secrets of a trick.
But in a terrific commencement speech to Drake University’s new graduates in December, English professor and Bright College Dean Craig Owens defended the humble bumblebee. “It’s still a kind of miracle,” he said. “The chances that precisely the right musculature and nervous system should have evolved at precisely the moment when those little wings and that bulbous body should need them are so infinitesimal, so unimaginably unlikely that we barely have to stretch the idea of ‘miracle’ to make it fit.”
I can’t understand or even begin to explain the actual physics here. So let me point you toward another story about a different kind of bee and a different kind of miracle. Click here to read Brianne Sanchez’s fascinating profile of Katie Flinn, Iowa’s only certified “honey sommelier,” whose almost accidental beekeeping career has helped her overcome the post-traumatic stress from 18 years of military service. “That humming and buzzing of the bees, it puts me at this immediate calm,” she said. “I will literally feel my rage dissipate as soon as I start.”
It will take scientists more time to fully unpack how that works. But when they do, it may seem even more extraordinary, not less.
In the news business, there’s the old joke about never letting facts get in the way of a good story. But in my experience, reporting always pays off. The best stories are true.
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