A mural is seen on a heavily damaged residential building in the frontline town of Avdiivka, Donetsk region on April 25, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP Photo)

Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Sports Finalist – Ian MacNicol. Michalina Kwasniewska of Poland competes in the Women's high jump during day one of The European Athletics U23 Championships 2013 on July 11, 2013 in Tampere, Finland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Agence France-Presse)

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.

People play "Palin", a traditional ritual and ancestral Mapuche game played with curved sticks called "Chuecas" and a wooden ball, during a meet on Dia de la Raza (Day of the Races), also known as Columbus Day in Vina del Mar, Chile October 11, 2015. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)

A National Bolivarian Police officer rescues a man who was being attacked by protesters, who then threw rocks at them, during a protest demanding food a few blocks from Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Venezuela is seeing rising frustration with widespread food shortages and triple-digit inflation. (Photo by Fernando Llano/AP Photo)

Su Daocheng rides his home-made mechanical horse vehicle on a street in Shiyan, Hubei province January 18, 2015. Su spent 2 months making this 1.5 metre high and 2 metre long horse, which weighed 250 kilograms with 4 legs and 2 supportive wheels, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A man enters an adult amusement establishment in Shinjuku's nightlife district of Kabukicho in Tokyo, August 27, 2015. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)