A woman prays as she touches the carcass of a male elephant after he, according to forest officials, was electrocuted early morning in a paddy field on the outskirts of Guwahati, India, June 20, 2017. (Photo by Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters)

Children dressed as Hindu deities take part in an event to mark the consecration of Ayodhya Ram temple, in Bhopal on January 22, 2024. (Photo by Gagan Nayar/AFP Photo)

An Iranian woman wearing a face mask walks on a street in Tehran, Iran, 19 October 2020. According to the Iranian Health ministry, Iran reported its highest daily COVID-19 death toll of 337 and 4,251 new infections in past 24 hours as it appears that Iran is in a third wave of COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA/EFE)

Once upon a time a myth was born that insects, unlike animals, are just a machines that not capable of learning and survive only based on their instincts. That myth has become the widespread opinion. Of course, this opinion is indeed erroneous, like many other widespread opinions. Let us try to find out which part is a myth and which part is true.

A competitor tries to swipe away some grease as he slips off the “gostra”, a pole covered in grease, during the celebrations for the religious feast of St Julian, patron of the town of St Julian's, outside Valletta August 30, 2015. In the traditional “gostra”, a game stretching back to the Middle Ages, young men, women and children have to make their way to the top of a pole and try to uproot one of the flags to win prizes. Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

The Perth-based photographer and journalist Frances Andrijich has travelled the Western Australian coast since the early 90s, capturing clotheslines in all their glory. In her images they take the roles of play equipment, Christmas trees and, in the summer, a homemaker’s dream. Andrijich admits she is hopelessly hung up on clotheslines; her latest book celebrates them under the spotlight of the Australian sun. Here: Vera Germanis hangs out underwear in Frances Andrijich’s grandparents’ backyard. This was the photographer’s first clothesline shot, taken in Midland Junction in 1991. (Photo by Frances Andrijich)

A Naga man carries fish in his teeth after it was stunned by dynamite, which fishermen threw in a creek between Donhe and Lahe township, in the Naga Self-Administered Zone in northwest Myanmar December 27, 2014. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

The Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way, can be seen shining above a remote village in Switzerland. The cinematic images convey the beauty of the galaxy gleaming above the picturesque Swiss mountains. Photographer Sandro Casutt took the amazing snaps in different seasons throughout the year, from his home valley of Vals, Switzerland. Here: A view of the sky from the Zervreila Mountain Lagoon in Switzerland. (Photo by Sandro Casutt/Caters News)