Tao Xiangli gets out of his homemade submarine after operating it in a lake on the outskirts of Beijing September 3, 2009. Amateur inventor Tao, 34, made a fully functional submarine, which has a periscope, depth control tanks, electric motors, manometer, and two propellers, from old oil barrels and tools which he bought at a second-hand market. He took 2 years to invent and test the submarine which costs 30,000 yuan ($4,385). (Photo by Christina Hu/Reuters)

Two young women pose for a portrait, dressed in robes after collecting their Bachelor degrees in Conakry on October 12, 2020. Presidential elections are to be held on October 18, with incumbent President bidding for a third term in office, defying critics who say he forced through a new constitution this year enabling him to sidestep two-term presidential limits. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)

“La Tomatina is a festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, in which participants throw tomatoes at each other”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A man sits in tomato pulp at the end of the world's biggest tomato fight at La Tomatina festival on August 26, 2009 in Bunol, Spain. More than 45000 people from all over the world descended on the small Valencian town to participate La Tomatina festival, with the local town hall estimating that over 100 tons of rotten and over-ripe tomatoes were thrown. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

Ethnic “Kam” (also known as Dong) women get ready for a traditional wedding ritual known as the “steal the chicken at the drum tower” in a minority Dong village in southwestern Chinese city of Congjiang, Guizhou province, China January 29, 2017. The ceremony held in the ethnic Kam minority village of Gantuan in Guizhou province is based on a tradition dating back some 500 years that was revived and modified in the 1990s for villagers and tourists. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Actress Marilyn Monroe poses for a portrait in a bathing suit and high heels with a bottle of Coca-Cola in a glass on a table behind her in circa 1953. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Gloria Grahame in state of undress in a scene from the film “Naked Alibi”, 1954. (Photo by Universal/Getty Images)

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 two-week-old hoglet finds an unusual spot to sit at the Happy Hedgehogs rescue centre in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire in the second decade of September 2023. (Photo by James Glossop/The Times)