Queen Elizabeth commands tens of thousands and lays up to 2,000 eggs a day? That might be an editing error. Dan Graur, a biologist in Houston, discovered that Reuters News Service once required that all stories about “the queen” should henceforth refer to her majesty as Queen Elizabeth. Thus, instead of “the queen and her horse boarded the queen’s yacht,” reporters must write “Queen Elizabeth and her horse boarded Queen Elizabeth’s yacht.”  Well, that’s good, respectful policy. In theory. In practice, it threw a spanner in the works.

Soon after setting the standard, Reuters ran this cock up:

If you’re not able to read the science news piece above, it says in part:

With its highly evolved social structure of tens of thousands of worker bees commanded by Queen Elizabeth, the honey bee genome could also improve the search for genes linked to social behavior.

Queen Elizabeth has 10 times the lifespan of workers and lays up to 2,000 eggs a day. Despite having tiny brains, honey bees display honed cognitive abilities and learn to associate a flower’s color, shape and scent with food, which increases its foraging ability.

Queen Elizabeth has 10 times the lifespan of workers?  I guess that depends on their type of work. Nevertheless, she will outlived a lot of us.  Today (April 21) marks her majesty’s 90th birthday. Grand celebrations are sweeping the Commonwealth as royalists pay homage to the lucky lady who has (as Reuters says in their piece, above) a genome that could improve the search for genes linked to social behaviour. Jolly good of her.