Photographer Anand Varma partnered with the bee lab at UC Davis to capture the first 21 days of a bee's life, from egg to insect. In just 60 seconds, you can watch the featured bees mature in their brood cells. Unfortunately, the mites that run around baby bees and suck their blood—which leads to the weakening and eventual destruction of a hive—also make an appearance. Some beekeepers will treat their hives with chemicals to combat the mites, but it's bad news for the bees in the long run.
By committing this process to video, Varma hoped to show how mites and bees interact in the hive, in order to help scientists who are working to find and breed bees that are resistant to the mites. Learn more about the process in Varma's Ted Talk.