It’s been said ‘an army marches on its stomach’ and any beekeeper worth their salt knows that their honey bees’ diet (including ‘salt’!) is essential to their output, in peace and war. As yet we haven’t been able to fully replicate a complete, naturally-foraged diet with supplementary alternatives. Could that soon change?

Honey bees challenge many of the ideas we have about ageing (imagine doing the most physically demanding work of your life at the very end, or your mother naturally living more than 30 times as long as you…). Science writer Dave Black takes a look at what we know about our honey bees’ ageing process.