These images have been created using a colour scanning electron microscope (SEM) by the award-winning Eye of Science, comprised of snapper Oliver Meckes and biologist Nicole Ottawa. For a decade the pair, based in Reutlingen in the south of Germany, worked with an old SEM they saved from the scrapheap, but for the last five years they have used a £250,000 FEI Quanta Series Field Emission SEM. Oliver said: “Flowers are beautiful in 'normal' view, but when you look closer, some parts get very bizarre and unexpected structures appear – flowers within flowers, worlds within worlds”. Photo: The floret of a Chamomile flower up close and personal. (Photo by Oliver Meckes/Barcroft Media)

Have you ever been interested in the sign language? Surely you’ve always wanted to learn the art of sending a message using just your hands. To help people achieve this goal, Alex Solis has taken a photo of a hand showing each letter of the alphabet. However, this has been done many times before, which is why Alex decided to make each of the photos more interesting by placing little drawn animals and creatures onto each photo. Thanks to these cute little drawings the pictures become very endearing and memorable. All the little creatures blend in seamlessly into the pictures thanks to their well-chosen poses. This project, created by Alex Solis, is very unique and useful, allowing anyone to quickly remember all the listed hand gestures. (Photo by Alex Solis)

A scavenger sifts through garbage piled on the bank of Beirut river, Lebanon August 24, 2015. Lebanese protest organisers called for a fresh demonstration against the government on Saturday after two days of rallies that turned violent in central Beirut and wounded scores of people. The “You Stink” campaign has mobilised against the government's failure to solve a garbage disposal crisis, bringing thousands of people onto the streets in protests that have threatened the survival of the cabinet. (Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

Do tears of joy look the same as ones of woe—or ones from chopping onions? In “The Topography of Tears,” the Los Angeles-based photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher explores the physical terrain of one hundred tears emitted during a range of emotional states and physical reactions. Using a Zeiss microscope with an attached digital camera, she captures the composition of tears enclosed in glass slides, magnified between 10x and 40x. “There are many factors that determine the look of each tear image, including the viscosity of the tear, the chemistry of the weeper, the settings of the microscope, and the way I process the images afterwards,” she says.

The landscape series we’ve selected from Leo Caillard photography is a series of panoramic views of negative and information-filled spaces. The French photographer describes his remarkable work in the following terms: “a landscape series I chose to shoot in very high definition. A work about the action of humans in diverse types of environments; void of activity or full of information.

An adorable baby koala is seen enjoying a snooze after a traumatic start to life. The baby koala, nicknamed “Blondie Bumstead”, is being cared for by a volunteer from the Ipswich Koala protection society in Queensland after her mother was killed by a dog. Blondie, who was named for her light fur, was given just a 50-50 chance of pulling through after the attack. But after a course of antibiotics and some tender loving car from volunteer Marilyn Spletter she has now been given a clean bill of health. According to Marilyn she has hand-reared around 40 baby koalas but says that Blondie, who will be released back into the wild after 15 months, is one of her favourites. She said: “She's got a little character all of her own and she knows what she wants and what she doesn't. When she's stressed I kiss her on the nose or I rub my nose on hers and it relaxes her”. (Photo by Jamie Hanson/Newspix/REX Features)

A woman mourns the loss of her husband, next to a placard which reads “I'm a pusher”, who was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in Manila on July 23, 2016. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte swept to power in May on a promise to clampdown on drugs, and police have since confirmed killing nearly 200 people in a two-month crime blitz. There has also been a surge in killings by anti-drug vigilantes who leave victims' corpses on city streets wrapped in packaging tape with signs accusing them of being drug dealers. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)

Rahma, 19 (L), pictured with her 10-year old brother Fahad on June 21, 2016 in Kano, Nigeria. A teenage girl born without limbs lives her life in a plastic bowl. Rahma Haruna is a bright, happy girl, despite suffering from a mystery condition that stopped her arms and legs developing properly – leaving her practically limbless and in constant pain. The 19-year- old, from Kano, Nigeria, was born a healthy baby but when she turned six months old her growth came to a sudden halt and she stopped hitting key development milestones. Rahma’s family do their best to provide her with a fulfilling life and transport her around the village in a plastic bowl. Rahma said: “They help me a lot. How do they? They give me anything I need”. Rahma died on 25 December 2016. (Photo by Sani Maikatanga/Barcroft Images)