This Nature paper, co-authored by Boris Baer and colleagues, shows that honey bee queens are shaped not only by genetics and nutrition but also by the specialized queen cells that worker bees construct for them. The researchers found that queen cells have distinct mechanical and chemical properties, and that worker bees actively modify these properties through specialized building behaviors and physiological changes. Experimental tests demonstrated that these engineered physical and chemical cues are necessary for normal queen development and can strongly influence whether a larva develops into a healthy queen. The study concludes that honey bee workers create a developmental environment that directly guides caste formation, revealing a clear link between social construction behavior and developmental fate.