Also: honeycomb conjecture, beeswax
Hexagons divide a plane into equal areas with the least total perimeter, and bees end up with nearly hexagonal cells.
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Karihaloo and colleagues found honeybee comb cells start circular and become rounded hexagons as warm wax flows near cell junctions.
As reported in: Karihaloo, Zhang, Wang (2013). Honeybee combs: how the circular cells transform into rounded hexagons. Journal of The Royal Society Interface. doi:10.1098/rsif.2013.0299
Hales proved that any partition of the plane into equal-area regions has perimeter at least that of the regular hexagonal honeycomb.
As reported in: Hales (2001). The Honeycomb Conjecture. Discrete & Computational Geometry. doi:10.1007/s004540010071