The artworks that Alexa Meade makes are very unique and original. A usual painter creates a 2D or a 3D drawing on flat 2D surface. Alexa, on the other hand, draws over the body of a regular person, making them look like a 2D painting. The pictures of these people are almost uncanny, as you realize that the eyes “paintings” are real, and suddenly it dawns upon you that you are seeing a living and breathing human being. It is weird how we perceive this world, and how easy it is to trick our brain into thinking that it’s seeing a two-dimensional object. (Photo by Alexa Meade)

Wildlife are hunted down for consumption or for sale in the India eastern state of Nagaland. Hunters can make a good living, with some bred for food or to be sold as pets. These baby parrots, photographed by Caisii Mao via Sipa USA, are seen after they were caught and preserved by a local hunter and for sale at a private residence in Dimapur, India north eastern state of Nagaland on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. (Photo by Caisii Mao/NurPhoto/Sipa USA)

Aerial shots always amaze us by their magnificence. Human-sized footprints look like ant trails, trees resemble little pieces of broccoli, and landscapes are transformed into breathtaking images, which look like something that can be seen under a microscope. This set of pictures features surreal aerial shots of Botswana taken by Zack Seckler. In the past, to make these kinds of shots, someone had to go up in a helicopter to take a picture. However, today, such images can be easily made using quadcopters, such as DJI Phantom or any other. Thanks to the new technology, we are able to view our world in new ways, allowing us to better appreciate its complexity and beauty. (Photo by Zack Seckler)

Spectators in Moscow were treated to the site of humorously designed makeshift aircraft plunging into the Muskova River during the Red Bull Flugtag Moscow 2011 competition. 38 teams took part at the Flugtag – which means “flying day” – a competition in which teams in fancy dress attempt to pilot human-powered, home-made flying machines off a six-meter-high platform into water.

Photo: A makeshift aircraft plummets into the Moskva River during the Red Bull Flugtag Moscow 2011 competition. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

Scaffolding holding a remnant of the Soviet Union, the hammer and sickle, is seen on a rooftop of an abandoned building in the town of Pripyat on January 25, 2006 near Chernobyl, Ukraine. The town of Pripyat, deserted since the 1986 catastrophe, once housed 30,000 people, the majority of being workers from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Days after the catastrophe the inhabitants were relocated to other locations in the Soviet Union. The town of Pripyat has remained uninhabited since. Prypyat and the surrounding area will not be safe for human habitation for several centuries. Scientists estimate that the most dangerous radioactive elements will take up to 900 years to decay sufficiently to render the area safe.

“Animals take on human characteristics in this photo series by Davide Luciano. Davide’s goal was to achieve personification of these animals’ body parts without the use of motion. Using photography’s ability to manipulate time, Davide presents a snippet of these creature “active” lives by photographing a process, thus creating the illusion of life in these lifeless animal limbs. Recreating the uncomfortable into quizzical and whimsical photos that are bold, colorful, and always comical and satirical”. (Photos and caption by Davide Luciano)

Japanese researchers have sparked hopes of finding a cure for human baldness after successfully growing hair on hairless mice by implanting follicles created from stem cells, Agence France Presse reports. A picture taken on April 13, 2012 and released by the Tsuji Lab Research Institute for Science and Technology of the Tokyo University of Science shows a hairless mouse with black hair on its back at the laboratory in Noda, Chiba Prefecture. (Photo by Tokyo University of Science via AFP)