American actress and YouTuber Madeline Petsch in the second decade of May 2023 jokes about “intimacy“ while filming “Riverdale”. (Photo by madelame/Instagram)

Araya A. Hargate, nickname Chompoo poses on the red carpet for the screening of the film “Les Miserables” during the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 2019 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Stephane Mahe/Reuters)

A worker pushes a wheelbarrow past a mural in Doha on November 8, 2022, ahead of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup football tournament. (Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP Photo)

(L-R) Santiago Enrique Baston and American actress Eva Longoria attend the “Global Gift Gala” Photocall at Four Seasons Hotel George V on October 5, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Lyvans Boolaky/Getty Images)

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.

Do you think that history is a science? Well, not exactly. First, and foremost, history is the state's “legend of wars”, it’s official regalia. Of course, public historians are not interested in scientific truth – quite the opposite. In this respect, any attempt to present a state’s history as altruistic and benevolent as possible is welcomed and encouraged – as opposed to any revisionism attempts that may be more accurate. In this matter, Chinese have surpassed us all – they revised in highly creative manner (but rather shamelessly) the technology already invented by Europeans, a process that resulted in oldest state on the planet. Here is an interesting paradox: ask any sinologist about the Middle Kingdom during second century B.C., and he will describe it to you in such a vivid manner as if he has been living there all his life – but as soon as you will ask him to describe Chinese history in the 19-20th centuries… let's say, his eagerness will be greatly diminished. However, we will discuss China in a different article, and in the meantime we will try to understand how exactly historic “legend of wars” is formed and functions – based on a specific and well-known example. A great example is Ferdinand Magellan's first voyage around the world.

A girl poses in antlers ahead of a curfew on pub in Nottingham, a city in central England’s Midlands region on September 21, 2020 as Freshers' Week got underway. Revellers were also pictured out in Birmingham, which was plunged into a local lockdown amid a surge in coronavirus cases. (Photo by Ashley Kirk/The Sun)