While vacationing on the Maldives Islands, Taiwanese amateur photographer Will Ho stumbled onto an incredible stretch of beach covered in millions of bioluminescent phytoplankton. These tiny organisms glow similarly to fireflies and tend to emit light when stressed, such as when waves crash or when they are otherwise agitated. While the phenomenon and its chemical mechanisms have been known for some time, biologists have only recently began to understand the reasons behind it. Photo: Bioluminescent phytoplankton washes up on Maldives beach. (Photo by Will Ho)

Galagos, more commonly known as bush babies, are tiny African primates with remarkable jumping abilities. Thanks to the elastic energy stored in the tendons of their lower legs, small-eared galagos can jump 6 feet straight up in the air. (Photo by Traer Scott/Chronicle Books)

The painted nails of a Kurdish Peshmerga female fighter are seen as she takes up a position during combat skills training before being deployed to fight Islamic State militants, at their military camp in Sulaimaniya, northern Iraq September 18, 2014. (Photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

This long exposure picture shows vehicles on roads during rush hour on the eve of the National Day holidays in Shanghai on September 30, 2014. According to local media, police checkpoints will be set up at highways, elevated roads and business hubs to tackle drunk driving during the National Day holiday. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

A general view of dried-up rivers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia December 2, 2013. Western Australia's Pilbara region, which is the size of Spain, has the world's largest known deposits of iron ore and supplies nearly 45 percent of global trade in the mineral. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

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)

A newly born Sitatunga calf seen at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo on November 24, 2016 in Whipsnade, England. The swamp-dwelling species, also known as a marshbuck, is Africa's only true amphibious antelope. It was snuggled up in the leaves and almost perfectly camouflaged as it mother tended it. (Photo by Tony Margiocchi/Barcroft Images)

A dressed up participant without trousers takes part in the 2017 No Pants Subway Ride in New York, the United States, on January 8, 2017. The event, which first took place in New York in 2002, has become a yearly event attended by people in more than 60 cities across the globe. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua/Sipa USA)