“The Independence day”. While on storm chasing expeditions in the Tornado Alley in USA I have encountered many photogenic supercell storms. This photograph was taken while we were approaching the storm near Julesburg, Colorado on My 28th, 2013. The storm was tornado warned for more than one hour, but stayed an LP storm through all its cycles and never produced a tornado, just occasional brief funnels, large hail and some rain. Photo location: Julesburg, Colorado, USA. (Photo and caption by Marko Korošec/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“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 monkey drinks water from a tap on a hot afternoon in Jammu, the winter capital Kashmir, India, 17 May 2016. Temperatures of around 42 degrees Celsius were forecast in the region. According to the news reports the Indian government decided to divert water by its river interlinking plans from rivers like Brahmaputra and the Ganges towards those rivers facing the drought likesituation . Many Indian states have been affected by drought and have been hit hard by water scarcity. (Photo by Jaipal Singh/EPA)

Members of the staff wait for the start of the maiden press conference for China's all-girl “boyband” FFC-Acrush in Beijing, China April 28, 2017. Picture taken April, 28, 2017. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

In this May 12, 2017 photo, Pupy, an African elephant, stands in the doorway of his enclosure at the former city zoo now known as Eco Parque in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A year ago the 140-year old Buenos Aires zoo closed its doors and was transformed into a park. The first director decided that the animals should be housed in buildings that reflected their countries of origin. A replica of a Hindu temple was built for the Asian elephants. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

In this September 17, 2010 file photo a little brown bat is photographed in La Crosse Wis. Researchers for the first time found that little brown bats appear to be showing resistance to white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats across North America. (Photo by Peter Thomson/La Crosse Tribune via AP Photo)

A Great White Pelicans eats fish in the Mishmar HaSharon reservoir, Israel, Wednesday, November 4, 2015. Thousands of Pelicans stop in the reservoir for food provided by the Israeli nature reserves authority as they make their way to Africa. (Photo by Ariel Schalit/AP Photo)

A light installation is seen on the facade on the banks of the Saone river to pay tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks in Lyon, France, December 8, 2015. (Photo by Robert Pratta/Reuters)