Edinburgh-based physicist-turned-web-designer Tom Beddard was inspired by geometry to create these virtual Fabergé fractals – made up of self-repeating patterns, so that structures within the object resemble the whole. “Within a 3D fractal, there is infinite detail”, says Beddard, 37. “The closer you zoom in, the more structure is revealed”. Beddard rendered the fractals using WebGL, a technology used to animate 3D scenes in a browser.

This extraordinary series of close-up photos turns mundane insects into terrifying beasts from another world. The bugs are captured in intricate detail by photographer Javier Ruperez, using a special lens, revealing just how complex the tiny creatures are. (Photo by Javier Ruperez/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Photographer Howard Schatz had an idea: place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations to reveal the essence of their characters. Such was the premise behind his book, In Character: Actors Acting, which captures some of Hollywood’s most emotive stars in the act of, well, making faces. Luckily for us, he continued the tradition for Vanity Fair. Here are some of the best.

Sabine Pearlman‘s photographs find beauty in the destructive engineering of ammunition with this series of cross-sections of bullets cartridges from a Swiss bunker. They reveal the complexity inside each case. This series, which consists of 900 specimens, was photographed inside a WWII bunker in Switzerland. Pearlman says that she is intrigued by the beautiful complexity of the ammo set against its destructive purpose, at once showing off humanity’s ability to create and destroy.

Yes this is not a real dragon’s skull but it is still pretty creepy. This weird little plant is called a Snapdragon or Dragon flower or, if you want to sound even smarter, The Antirrhinum. Once the flower has died, the seed pod begins to look like the skulls you see here. Apart from being creepy as hell and alleged protectors of the garden, if you wore this about your body you would appear to be more “fascinating and gracious”. Though I imagine if anyone actually did find this on you, fascinating and gracious are not the only things they will think about you.

From a height of three meters, porcelain figurines are dropped on the ground, and the sound they make when they hit trips the shutter release. The result: razor-sharp images of disturbing beauty—temporary sculptures made visible to the human eye by high-speed photography technology. The porcelain statuette bursting into pieces isn't what really captures the attention; the fascination lies in the genesis of a dynamic figure that replaces the static pose. In contrast to the inertness of the intact kitsch figurines Klimas started out with, the photographs of their destruction possess a powerfully narrative character.

An undated handout picture released on January 10, 2017 by the Issekinicho publishing house shows an inter- species sexual behaviour between a male Japanese macaque and female sika deer, in Yakushima Scientists revealed on January 10, 2017 the “highly unusual” behaviour of a male monkey filmed trying to have sеx with female deer in Japan – a rare case of inter- species nookie. (Photo by Editions Issekinicho/AFP Photo)

Human canvases modelling world famous artworks including Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Edvard Munch's The Scream take to the streets of London in a bid to mend Britain's disconnect with art on September 25, 2017. Award winning body paint artist Sarah Attwell was commissioned by online art platform Rise Art to show that great art is for everybody, following research that revealed 1 in 6 Brits have never set foot in an art gallery. (Photo by Imagewise Ltd/Rex Features/Shutterstock)