>Links to photos and the a source for the complete referenced article.
http://www.livescience.com/38242-why-honeybee-honeycombs-are-perfect.html

I'd like to read the study...if anyone has it handy, could you please send it along?

The photos in that article don't make any sense to me...unless they are building on foundation?  (which really isn't 'comb building').
...the text is problematic as well.

First of all, the photos are not of the same cell...this is not a before and after shot (or if it is, one of the photos is upside down).

"Using a honeycomb grown at a research facility in Beijing, the researchers were able to carefully ward off the bees and photograph the bare honeycomb seconds after formation, providing the first clear evidence that cells naturally start as circles."

....I don't know what "seconds after formation" for a cell could even mean.  In the photo, the cell is surrounded by other cells that look similar.  I can't see a comb that is growing from the edge outward.  How can this cell be photographed "seconds after formation"...my observations are that when bees are building comb (no foundation), they radiate out from the edge, and that an entire cell isn't produced at one time....there is not "seconds after formation".  Even if this is on foundation, at what point after the first wax flake is deposited on the cell ridge is the cell "formed"?

Of course in the middle of a cluster things are different from an expanding nest, but it is hard to believe that this photo was taken "seconds after formation".  Was there nothing there seconds before?  A 'less formed cell'?  Also note that the cell walls on the other side of the comb (the 'peace sign' in photo A) are straight lines, not intersecting circles....and the plates at the bottom of the cell appear to already be straight (not rounded).

Secondly, the photos appear to be quite different from one another.  A has very thick walls compared to B.  On A we can see the cell bottom (presumably because it is shallower than B?).
In photo A, along the bottom edge of the cell (between 4 and 9 o'clock...most apparent at 6), one can see what looks like cell walls between the top edge and the bottoms of the cell.  These walls appear to be straight(ish) lines....yet this is the "before" photo.

I have a photo at home that shows cells similarly, but from a slight angle.  You can clearly see how it looks round from the  edge, but the inside of the cell is faceted.  I'll try to post it tonight if I can find it.

deknow

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