A group of hikers atop Mount St. Helens on July 21, 2016. Mount St. Helens or Louwala-Clough is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is 96 miles south of Seattle, Washington, and 50 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Raxit Kagalwala)

Fish-eye lens with a twist: the Norwegian photographer Brutus Ostling uses bait to lure a herring gull for a close-up in September 2022. (Photo by Brutus Ostling/Solent News)

Balinese children take part in a traditional mud bath known as Mebuug-buugan, a day after Nyepi – the “Day of Silence”, aimed at neutralising bad traits in Kedonganan village on Indonesia's resort island of Bali on March 23, 2023. (Photo by Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP Photo)

A dog looks on, as dogs and humans take part in the annual Paris Sausage Walk, also known as the march of the dachshunds, in Paris, France, on November 17, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Coombs/Reuters)

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.

Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrosio arrives at the pier of the Excelsior Hotel on August 31, 2022, on the opening day of the 79th Venice International Film Festival at Lido di Venezia in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Tiziana Fabi/AFP Photo)

An unidentified fashion lover waits outside Chanel's Haute Couture fashion show during snowfall in Paris, Tuesday January 22, 2019. (Photo by Thibault Camus/AP Photo)