A bee stings the back of a patient receiving treatment at the workshop of Sayed al-Sayeh, an apitherapist who originally trained as an agricultural engineer, in a suburb of Giza, Egypt on June 11, 2021. Al-Sayeh offers his traditional medicine treatment free of charge, in principle using bees' sting venom to treat rheumatic pain, nerve inflammation, and arthritis. Image: Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images

It’s one of nature’s seemingly magical tricks. A honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) stings a victim , and the stinger will still pump venom into a wound even after it has fully detached from the bee’s body. Thanks to some high-speed video, we may finally know the secrets behind this sting.

A team in Australia found that the tiny 2 millimeter (or only 0.08 inch) stinger of a honey bee works like a double-piston micro-pump. It pumps in two different directions and can deliver a continuous flow of venom.…