A woman jumps over a fire during the celebration of the summer solstice at a festival in the village of Okunevo in Omsk region, Russia on June 22, 2025. (Photo by Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)

Meghan Markle gestures as she and Prince Harry visit children at the Lights Academy in Abuja, Nigeria, Friday, May 10, 2024. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have arrived in Nigeria to champion the Invictus Games, which he founded to aid the rehabilitation of wounded and sick servicemembers and veterans. (Photo by Sunday Alamba/AP Photo)

An aerial view taken with a drone shows people walking past dried lava (L) from a previous volcanic eruption as they make their way to a location closer to watch the fresh volcano eruption near Grindavik, Reykjanes, Iceland, 17 July 2025. According to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, a magma flow has begun at the Sundhnuk crater range on 16 July. (Photo by Jakob Vegerfors/EPA)

A mahout rides on painted elephant as they march during a procession near the Grand Palace to pay their respects to Thailand's former queen Sirikit in Bangkok on November 27, 2025. (Photo by Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP Photo)

An urban Opossum covered in light snow visits a suburban Chicago deck on December 10, 2025. (Photo by H Rick Bamman/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Artists wearing traditional clown masks prepare to march during the annual Shinto festival called the Grand Festival at the Kotohiragu shrine in the Toranomon business district of Tokyo, Thursday, October 10, 2024. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

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.

Among the fish populations that could be harmed by the Xayaburi dam in Laos is the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish, considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s largest freshwater fish. The fish, which grows to 650 pounds and about 10 feet long, is only found in the Mekong River. It is migratory, moving between downstream habitats in Cambodia upstream to northern Thailand and Laos each year to spawn. Some experts fear the Xayaburi dam could block the migration and drive the giant catfish to extinction. (Photo by Courtesy of Zeb Hogan/University of Nevada, Reno)