Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

Bumblebees Can Breathe Underwater?!

Most people assume bees are creatures of the air, zipping between flowers on warm sunny days, but scientists just discovered something that completely turns that picture on its head. Bumblebee queens, it turns out, can actually breathe underwater, and the whole finding began with a lab accident that nobody saw coming. A conservation biologist studying the effects of pesticides on hibernating bumblebees opened her lab fridge one day to find that condensation had flooded several of her test tubes, completely submerging the queens resting inside. She assumed they were all dead, and then watched in total disbelief as they started moving the moment she removed them from the water.

That accidental discovery launched a full scientific investigation, and the results now published in a major research journal have left experts genuinely astonished. Like most bees, queen bumblebees spend the winter hibernating underground, waiting out the cold months so they can emerge and start new colonies when spring arrives. During that time, melting snow and heavy rains can saturate the soil and bury them in water for days at a stretch, and scientists now know they have developed two remarkable survival tricks for exactly that situation. The queens slow their body functions down to roughly 5 percent of their normal rate, dramatically reducing how much oxygen they need, and then quietly extract whatever oxygen remains dissolved in the surrounding water, just as aquatic insects do. If the oxygen runs too low, they can also switch to a backup system that fuels their cells without it entirely, then spend the following days breathing hard to flush out the waste products left behind. Researchers say this is the first time any land-based insect has been confirmed to breathe underwater, and they now suspect the ability may turn out to be far more common among bee species than anyone has imagined.

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bumblebee-queens-breathe-underwater-to-survive-drowning-revealing-how-they-can-live-submerged-for-a-week-180988330/

PrevPreviousThe 98th Academy Awards May Be The Most Exciting In Years
Next12-Year-Old Just Achieves Nuclear Fusion In His Living RoomNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

Rory McIlroy Makes History With Back-To-Back Masters Win

April 18, 2026

Rory McIlroy has done the unthinkable. The Northern Irish golf legend claimed his second consecutive Masters title at Augusta National, shooting a final round 69 to finish at 12-under par and beat world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler by one shot. In doing so, McIlroy joined Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, and

Read More
Happy News

A Jury Just Ruled That Ticketmaster Has Been Ripping Off Concert Fans For Years

April 18, 2026

Concert fans who have spent years fuming over sky-high ticket prices and fees they never agreed to just got a landmark vindication, as a federal jury in New York found that Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster illegally operated as a monopoly in the live events and ticketing industry. The

Read More
Happy News

95% Of People Carry This Virus For Life And Scientists Just Found A Way To Stop It

April 18, 2026

A virus that 95 percent of the global population carries silently for life has long resisted efforts to stop it, but scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle have just announced a breakthrough that could finally change that. The Epstein-Barr virus, which most people encounter in childhood and which

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2026 HappyNews.