An osprey flies with a fish in its talons at the Sebastian Inlet State Park in Melbourne Beach, Florida on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Ronen Tivony/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A horse is evacuated as the Canyon Fire burns in brush-filled hillsides in Castaic, California, 07 August 2025. The Canyon Fire near Lake Piru, a reservoir about 60 miles northwest of downtown LA, has forced thousands to evacute and has grown to more than 1,000 acres according to Cal Fire. (Photo by Allison Dinner/EPA)

Sophie Roberts admires Angel of the Trench by artists Laura and Paul Carey at the Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park near Masham, North Yorkshire, UK on October 14, 2025. (Photo by James Glossop/Times Media Ltd)

An attendee dressed as Winnie the Pooh talks with a member of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department during the annual pre-Halloween High Heel Race in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 28, 2025. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Reuters)

American actress and singer Victoria Justice in the last decade of October 2025 channels her devious side. (Photo by VictoriaJustice/Instagram)

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.

Undated BBC handout photo of a female two-coloured Mason Bee carrying a dried grass stalk back to her snail-shell nest on the British Isles in the latest episode of Sir David Attenborough's Wild Isles series. Issue date: Sunday March 26, 2023. (Photo by John Walters/Silverback Films/BBC/PA Wire)