An ambulance with emergency lights on makes its way through snowfall in Iowa, US on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Joseph Cress/AP Photo)

A black golden shaded British Shorthair cat is admired by visitors as he is carried at the Cat Extravaganza event at Olympia in London, Sunday, February 18, 2024. Loving Cats Worldwide brought its Cat Extravaganza and Rescue Awareness Event to London, where visitors could learn all about this intelligent species by observing the show's five judging rings. Plus, meet with local rescues and charities, as well as hear educational anecdotes about different cat breeds. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

To an outsider, their passion is at times illegal and often on the verge of life and death. But climbing rooftops of high-rise buildings and exploring abandoned facilities is in the blood of these young Muscovites. The small group calls itself “Rudex”, which stands for “roof and decay exploration”, and is akin a Western youth craze known as urbex or “urban exploration” of man-made structures. Here: Urban explorer Vad Him of Rudex team jumps whilst on a rooftop in Moscow, Russia, August 14, 2017. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Myanmar national award second-place winner: Kyaw Win Hlaing. “Mount Bromo is an active volcano in East Java, Indonesia. The name Bromo derives from the Javanese pronunciation of Brahma, the Hindu creator god”. (Photo by Kyaw Win Hlaing/Sony World Photography Awards 2018)

Most people know Nikon as a purveyor of pro and consumer-grade digital cameras. But the company's expertise with optics bleeds over into related markets – it's one of the science community's major suppliers of microscopes. And each year the company asks the community to send it some of their favorite images of tiny objects. A panel of scientists and journalists have chosen the best of this past year's submissions, which Nikon has placed on its Small World site.

Photo: Honorable Mention. “Snow crystal, illuminated with colored lights (5x)”. (Photo by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Physics, Pasadena, California, USA)

Moichara or Bull race is a rural festival where a pair of bulls race each other during the monsoon season. This race is performed by a farmer in Parganas, India on July 4, 2021. (Photo by Sumit Sanyal/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

“Unexpected x2 (a.k.a. “how much is that doggie in the window”)”. Taiwan, 2011. (Photo and caption by Asian (Street) Impressions)