A golden huddle by Minqiang Lu, China. Two females and a male golden snub-nosed monkey huddle together to keep warm in the extreme cold. Threatened by forest loss and fragmentation, this endangered species is confined to central China. Restricted to living high up in the temperate forests, these monkeys – here in the Qinling mountains in Shaanxi province – feed mostly in the trees, on leaves, bark, buds and lichen. In heavy wind and snow, Minqiang walked up the mountain carrying his equipment. He stayed for half an hour in temperatures of –10C opposite the tree where the group was huddled before achieving this eye-level composition. (Photo by Minqiang Lu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Leicester City hostesses take pictures in front of a billboard as people gather to watch the team's English Premier League soccer match against Everton on a big screen, in Bangkok, Thailand, May 7, 2016. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

“Microscope images forge an extraordinary bond between science and art, said Hidenao Tsuchiya, Olympus America's Vice President and General Manager for the Scientific Equipment Group. We founded this competition to focus on the fascinating stories coming out of today's life science research laboratories. The thousands of images that people have shared with the competition over the years reflect some of the most exciting work going on in research today – work that can help shed light on the living universe and ultimately save lives. We look at BioScapes and these beautiful images as sources of education and inspiration to us and the world”. – OlympusBioScapes

Photo: Pretarsus of the third leg of a female drone fly (Eristalis tenax), ventral view, by Dr. Jan Michels, Institute of Zoology, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany. (Photo by Olympus BioScapes)

A man takes a photo of a radio antenna that's part of the Atacama Large Milimeter Array Observatory on March 12, 2013 at Llano de Chajnantor, about 43 miles (70 kilometers) from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. The $1.5 billion ALMA facility, which had its official inauguration on March 13, is considered the world's most expensive ground-based observatory. (Photo by Felipe Trueba/EPA)

Lowry Park Zoo elephants Matjeka, 23, and her 1-year-old daughter, Mavi, apply a liberal coating of “sunscreen” to themselves in a clay mud wallow at the park Tuesday, August 12, 2014, in Tampa, Fla., on the park's first observation of World Elephant Day to raise awareness of the wild African elephant crisis. “Elephants are prone to being sunburned”, said associate curator Chris Massaro. “What they need is lot of mud or clay to roll around in and cover up their skin so it will protect it from the sun”. (Photo by Cherie Diez/AP Photo/The Tampa Bay Times)

Women stand at a bus stop next to an advertisement for military conscription showing a Russian soldier, in Moscow, Russia, 08 April 2024. According to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, almost 540 thousand people entered military service under contract in the Russian Armed Forces in 2023, and about 50 thousand since the beginning of 2024. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA/EFE)

A wounded Palestinian boy reacts at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on May 1, 2024. (Photo by Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

A boy wears a medieval helmet during a festival dedicated to the Day of Russia in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. The Day of Russia is celebrated annually on 12 June. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)