Indian passengers travel on a local train in New Delhi, India, October 2017. Constructed in 1975 to bypass the crowded and passenger-heavy Old Delhi, New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations, the railway line once used to be the lifeline of the capital. (Photo by Ankur Dutta/Barcroft Media)

Street vendors hold campaign posters for presidential candidate Patrice Talon ahead of the second round of Benin's presidential election on Sunday in Cotonou, Benin, March 18, 2016. (Photo by Charles Placide Tossou/Reuters)

A Buddhist monk catches an aerial view of Kathmandu from the damaged Swayambhunath Stupa premises in Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, May 6, 2015. The April 25 earthquake killed thousands and injured many more as it flattened mountain villages and destroyed buildings and archaeological sites in Kathmandu. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

National Geographic photographer Steve Winter has spent most of his adult life shooting wild cats. Photo: A 14-month-old cub, cooling off in a pond, is riveted by a deer that appeared near the shore. Tigers are powerful swimmers; they can easily cross rivers four to five miles wide and have been known to swim distances of up to 18 miles. (Photo by Steve Winter/National Geographic)

An animation artist has thrown a group of Disney characters into the real world – and it's not pretty. Jeff Hong, from New York, has taken the childhood favourites and turned their lives upside down. In a series of nightmarish pictures on his Tumblr, the cartoons who once lived happily ever after are now facing up to reality. And judging from these images they're not adjusting well. Photo: Beauty is everything for this belle of the ball. (Photo by Jeff Hong)

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.

October winner. “A burst of the aurora borealis over Kirkjufell, taken in September 2016. This shot has been a holy grail for me and was finally captured after many trips”. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: Iceland is a hotspot for aurora photography and this composition of the symmetric, free-standing Kirkjufell and the trident waterfall is much-sought after. If you can time your visit when the aurora “kp” index is high and know the settings for nighttime aurora images, you may end up with a beautiful photograph like this. (Photo by DВ/The Guardian)

A person dressed as a zombie mermaid poses for a photo as she interacts with patrons at the Haunted Hotel Takeover Halloween party at hotel Ziggy in West Hollywood, California, U.S., October 29, 2022. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)