A participant with a demon mask brandishes a stick with fireworks among revellers during the traditional Correfoc (fire-run) festival in Palma de Mallorca on January 29, 2023. The Correfoc is a night of revelry in which participants dress up as demons and devils, and run through the streets scaring people with fire and fireworks. (Photo by Jaime Reina/AFP Photo)

A Sri Lankan Christian girl wears a Santa hair band and a face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus as she arrives at a church to attend the Christmas mass in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, December 25, 2020. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo)

A group of women take photos of a giant donut installation outside the Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London on Thursday June 24, 2021, to celebrate a new exhibition entitled Villainy, a body of work by an anonymous street artist from New York who operates under the alias, “Jerkface”. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Wire Press Association)

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.

Demonstrators react during a rally in support of legal and safe abortion and to mark the International Safe Abortion Day in Bogota, Colombia on September 28, 2021. (Photo by Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters)

“Himalayan Dog”. This dog just appeared out of nowhere and followed us for an entire week during our trekking trip in the Himalayan outback. He always used to sleep in front of our tent and guarded us in the nights. When I decided to get up at 4 a.m. to climb the next 5000 m peak for sunrise he accompanied me as well. On the top he was sitting for the entire 30 minutes on this place looking straight into the countryside. Photo location: Ladakh, India. (Photo and caption by Sebastian Wahlhuetter/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Local villagers fall onto the ground from an ox-cart as they ride to rid evil spirits from their village at Pring Ka-ek village, Cambodi. (Photo by Heng Sinith/AP Photo)