Russia's Kamila Valieva performs during the Exhibition Gala at the Rostelecom Cup 2021 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Sochi on November 28, 2021. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)
Judges watch athletes during the women's individual compact NH 5km competition at the Nordic Combined World Cup in Ramsau, Austria, Saturday, December 16, 2023. (Photo by Matthias Schrader/AP Photo)
Barcelona's Caroline Graham Hansen, center, in action during the women's Champions League quarterfinals, second leg, soccer match between FC Barcelona and SK Brann Kvinner at the Estadi Johan Cruyff in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, March 28, 2024. (Photo by Joan Monfort/AP Photo)
Mercedes' team members practice a pit stop with the car of Italian driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli ahead of the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai on March 20, 2025. (Photo by Héctor Retamal/AFP Photo)
A drone view shows people surfing during spring sunshine, as the warm weather is set to continue into the weekend, at Fistral Beach, Newquay, south west Britain, on May 9, 2024. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)
Sumo wrestlers in their women's match at the 2021 Russian Sumo Championship at Ak Bars Wrestling Palace in Kazan, Russia on February 14, 2021. There are over 6,000 sumo wrestlers in Russia. (Photo by Yegor Aleyev/TASS)
In this November 28, 1966 file photo, one of the 10 beagles involved in the first test of the Veterans Administration Hospital in East Orange, N.J. smokes a cigarette through a machine linked to its windpipe by a plastic tube to test any link between smoking and emphysema. (Photo by 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.