A rainbow appears over the Louisiana gulf May 26, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico near Brush Island, Louisiana. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Two models sit in an acrylic “ZF-Car” from the German manufacturer of the same name at the Automechanika automotive service industry trade fair in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 12 September 2016. The Automechanika Fair runs from 13 to 17 September 2016. (Photo by Boris Rössler/EPA)

Nine years ago, Tom Carter traveled from San Francisco to China, responding to a job posting that turned out to be a scam. He managed to find another job as a teacher, and saved enough money to embark on a 56,000 km trip through all of China's 33 provinces that lasted two years. Carrying a camera – just a a 4-megapixel point-and-shoot – Carter captured some amazing images of the widely varying landscape, people, and architecture across the nation. Photo: Buddhist pilgrim family from Sichuan. (Photo by Tom Carter via The Atlantic)

This photo taken on July 19, 2020 shows a person taking photos while water is released from the Three Gorges Dam, a gigantic hydropower project on the Yangtze river, to relieve flood pressure in Yichang, central China's Hubei province. Rising waters across central and eastern China have left over 140 people dead or missing, and floods have affected almost 24 million since the start of July, according to the ministry of emergency management. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

Lightning streaks across the skies over the coastal port city of Batroun, some 43km north of the Lebanese capital Beirut on December 6, 2023. (Photo by Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP Photo)

An artist's impression of a growing supermassive black hole located in the early Universe is seen in this NASA handout illustration released on June 15, 2011. Using the deepest X-ray image ever taken, astronomers found the first direct evidence that massive black holes were common in the early universe. This discovery from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory shows that very young black holes grew more aggressively than previously thought, in tandem with the growth of their host galaxies. (Photo by Reuters/NASA/Chandra X-Ray Observatory/A.Hobart)

Lighting from an approaching thunder storm strikes near the shore in Panama City Beach, Fla., on Thursday, July 10, 2014. (Photo by Brennen Smith/AP Photo/The Decatur Daily)

A hot air-balloon flies during the International Lorraine Mondial Air Balloons Festival, in Chambley-Bussieres, eastern France, Friday, July 26, 2013. (Photo by Mathieu Cugnot/AP Photo)