Wayne Painter, 70, saw the sun set beneath lenticular clouds 20km wide in Tasmania, Australia in November 2021. Some likened the image to a near-miss with Mars. (Photo by Wayne Painter/Kennedy News)

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.

Fearless daredevils clamber up the worlds highest man-made climbing wall – running up the face of a 540ft dam. The Diga di Luzzone in Switzerland is considered by climbers as the Everest of wall climbing. (Photo by Ilana Marcus/Caters News)

A man reacts as health workers help collect a nasal swab sample to test for COVID-19 in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, September 17, 2020. As India’s coronavirus confirmed cases jump by a record 97,894 cases in the past 24 hours, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government faced a scathing opposition criticism in Parliament for its handling of the pandemic and a contracting economy leaving millions jobless on Thursday. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (L) is welcomed by the European Parliament President Roberta Metsola ahead of a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, 03 November 2022. (Photo by Stephanie Lecocq/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A bully greenfinch (left) got its comeuppance when a small but fiery dunnock (right) defended itself with its talons in Suffolk, United Kingdom on April 18, 2022. The smaller bird was perched peacefully before the finch burst onto the scene and aggressively squared up to the dunnock. But as the finch tried to peck at the dunnock, the small brown bird expertly used its foot to slam its mouth shut. (Photo by Paul Sawer/Solent News & Photo Agency)

“The Glimmer Twins”, a statue of Rolling Stones Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards created by sculptor Amy Goodman (centre), is unveiled at One Bell Corner in Dartford, Essex, UK on Wednesday, August 9, 2023. The statue has been commissioned by Dartford Borough Council to celebrate two of the town's most famous former residents. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images)