An alcohol-only diet would likely confuse most species, but new research indicates that hornets can survive—seemingly without any negative effects—on a diet consisting solely of an 80 percent ethanol sugar solution.
Joe Johnson is our resident science guy and he’s here with the story of those wasps that can thrive on just alcohol without getting buzzed and other science stories that caught his eye, including ice melting in Norway that has revealed an Iron Age medieval mountain pass littered with near-perfectly preserved artifacts and scientists finding a seismic role in formation of large gold nuggets.
Image: Three hornets feed on a ripe fig, which could provide naturally occurring ethanol. (Credit: Eran Levin/ Scientific American)