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)

A driverless vehicle runs at Vanke's Building Research Centre testing area in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong province November 2, 2015. The country's largest property developer, China Vanke, is investing in its own robots to do certain jobs in the face of a labor shortage in the world's most populated country. This driverless car is among the robots that Vanke is aiming to bring in. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Sustainable development goal target 12.5 is to reduce waste. But with a planet increasingly dependent on technology, is that even possible? As of today, over 30m tonnes of electronic waste has been thrown out so far this year, according to the World Counts. Most e-waste is sent to landfills in Asia and Africa where it is recycled by hand, exposing the people who do it to environmental hazards. Kai Loeffelbein’s photographs of e-waste recycling in Guiyu, southern China show what happens to discarded computers. (Photo by Kai Loeffelbein/laif Agentur)

People run away as a building is toppled during a controlled demolition as part of an urban transformation in Ankara, Turkey, February 3, 2014. (Photo by Serap Doganyigit/Reuters)

An innovative artist has camouflaged nude bodies by painting them into the worlds most expensive artworks. New York body artist, Trina Merry picked the 20 top dearest paintings, then photographed naked models disguised as part of the piece. Here: Titled 8,100,000 after the price paid for Bal du moulin de la Galette. (Photo by Trina Merry/Caters News)

Google's vice president Alan Eustace looks out of his spacesuit into the stratosphere prior to a record-breaking skydive over New Mexico, in this still image taken from video October 24, 2014, a handout courtesy of the Paragon Space Development Corporation. Eustace was lifted up 135,890 ft (41,420 metres) by an enormous balloon while wearing a specially designed pressurized space suit, the Paragon Space Development Corporation said. Eustace remained in a free fall for approximately 4.5 minutes before landing safely nearly 70 miles (43.4 kms) from his launch point, setting a world record for the highest skydive and breaking the sound barrier in the process. Eustace landed safely on the ground just 15 minutes after he was lifted into the air. (Photo by Reuters/Paragon Space Development Corporation)

From footballs to live fish, delivery mopeds piled high with unwieldy, unlikely goods are one of the Vietnamese capital’s most distinctive sights. As the city plans to ban motorbikes altogether, photographer Jon Enoch captured the drivers at work. (Photo by Jon Enoch/The Guardian)

Soap Bubble Structures by Kym Cox. Bubbles optimise space and minimise their surface area for a given volume of air. This phenomenon makes them a useful tool in many areas of research, in particular, materials science and “packing” – how things fit together. Bubble walls drain under gravity, thin at the top, thick at the bottom, which interferes with travelling lightwaves to create bands of colour. Black spots show the wall is too thin for interference colours, indicating the bubble is about to burst. (Photo by Kym Cox/2019 Science Photographer of the Year/RPS)