«Guided by observations that show that the membrane thickness varies from pole to pole, we constructed a mathematical model that considers the egg to be a pressurized elastic shell that grows and showed that we can capture the entire range of
egg shapes observed in nature,» said Mahadevan.
Mancke designed the Sun Hive after having
observed a wild bee nest in the woods near his home, which took an
egg -
shaped form and was covered in waxy skin and propolis.