A child plays beside an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, the day after it was immersed in the Yamuna river for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Delhi, India September 6, 2017. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

A woman looks on while a horse-drawn carriage passes by Italian artist Emilio Ferro's artwork installation “Portal of Light” at the Giza pyramids necropolis during the second edition of the Art D’Égypte exhibition “Forever is Now” on October 27, 2022. (Photo by Khaled Desouki/AFP Photo)

Fire runners in devil costumes gather to enlighten their stick mounted firecrackers during the “Correfocs” at the “Fiesta Major” of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain on April 15, 2023. (Photo by Matthias Oesterle/Alamy Live News)

«Female Boxers», 2024. Julia Fullerton-Batten is a fine art photographer renowned for her cinematic visual storytelling. Her large-scale projects are based around specific themes, each image embellishing her subject matter in a series of thought-provoking “stories” using staged tableaux and sophisticated lighting techniques. (Photo by Julia Fullerton-Batten)

Passengers wearing protective masks travel on an over crowded train towards capital city, amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 8, 2020. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

A boy plays at the feet of a statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela on Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, on October 29, 2024. (Photo by Esa Alexander/Reuters)

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.

Thor, Virginia Tech College of Engineering, Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, tries to connect the hose to a firehose connection during the hose task at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, Friday, December 20, 2013, in Homestead, Fla. (Photo by Alan Diaz/AP Photo)