A striking spiral of golden ginkgo leaves raked with care in a private garden in Petersdorf, Brandenburg, Germany on November 2, 2025. (Photo by Patrick Pleu/dpa)

A man looks at a pyroclastic flow during the eruption of Mount Semeru in Lumajang, East Java, on November 19, 2025. (Photo by Agus Harianto/AFP Photo)

Snails are displayed to be sold on the side of a highway, in Sousse, Tunisia, March 27, 2025. (Photo by Ons Abid/AP Photo)

A family of refugees shelters under a truck carrying plastic lota, kettles used to perform Muslim ablutions in Muna Garage, Maiduguri, Nigeria February 16, 2017. (Photo by Paul Carsten/Reuters)

An Indian artists uses sparkles to decorate statues of the Hindu god Lord Ganesh ahead of the forthcoming Ganesh Chaturthi festival at a workshop in Hyderabad on August 29, 2016. The statues are being prepared for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival a popular eleven-day long Hindu religious festival in India which will be celebrated from September 5 to 15. (Photo by Noah Seelam/AFP Photo)

A woman walks protecting herself from rain after Hurricane Matthew in Les Anglais, Haiti, October 13, 2016. (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

William Gibson is not one of the authors that spits out novels like a machine – in his long and fruitful career he has only published 11 novels andof short stories and articles in the tens each. Still his impact on modern literature was huge – the “noir prophet” of the cyberpunk subgenre (that he was one of the pioneers of) has predicted the rise of reality television, virtual reality, video games and the internet. He is a Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction writer, with a special eye for what the future might bring.

Girls suffering from dwarfism take part in the disability pride parade in New York, July 12, 2015. The parade grand marshal was former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who 25 years ago sponsored the Americans With Disabilities Act. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)