In a beehive, every larva starts out genetically identical. There's no royal bloodline, no secret queen gene. What sets a queen bee apart is what she eats.

While most larvae are fed a mix of pollen and nectar, a select few are given an exclusive diet of royal jelly — a rich, milky secretion packed with nutrients. If a larva is fed royal jelly continuously from the moment it hatches, it transforms into a queen: larger, fertile, and built to lead the hive. The others become workers, infertile and smaller, despite having the same DNA.

This remarkable transformation is one of nature’s most vivid examples of epigenetics — how environment (in this case, food) can shape destiny without altering the genetic code.