Reuters photographer Bobby Yip took a series of portraits of people taking part in the “Occupy Central” protests in Hong Kong, and asked them why they had joined the demonstrations. China rules Hong Kong under a “one country, two systems” formula that accords the territory limited democracy. Tens of thousands of mostly student protesters are demanding Beijing give them full democracy, with the freedom to nominate election candidates. The unrest is the worst in Hong Kong since China resumed its rule over the former British colony in 1997. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

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)

A student falls asleep as she holds a book containing a portrait of China's late chairman Mao Zedong during a lesson at the Democracy Elementary and Middle School in Sitong town, Henan province December 3, 2013. In a remote part of central China, the day starts at the Democracy Elementary and Middle School with a pre-dawn jog, some revolutionary songs and then an activity long since forgotten at other schools: reciting quotations from Mao Zedong's famed “Little Red Book”. While the ruling Communist Party that Mao led continues to hold him in esteem as the leader of the Communist Revolution, his radical policies and teachings have been largely shelved since his death in 1976 in favour of a pro-market approach that has turned China from a backwater into the world's second biggest economy. The 120th anniversary of Mao's birth is on December 26, 2013. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

A cheerleader for the Virginia Cavaliers men’s basketball team on court during a timeout against the Texas A&M Aggies at John Paul Jones Arena in Virginia, US on November 29, 2023. (Photo by Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports)

A visitor holds an Israeli-made rifle during the 8th International Land and Naval Defense system exhibition, in New Delhi, India, on February 6, 2014. (Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)

Artist Vik Muniz is known for his gigantic composite installations and sculptures created from thousands of individual objects. In this new collaboration with artist and MIT researcher Marcelo Coelho, Muniz takes the opposite approach and explores the microscopic with a new series of sandcastles etched onto individual grains of sand.

The Spanish city of Bilbao, known architecturally for its Guggenheim, has a new(ish) architectural icon. Not that it’s replacing Ghery’s work, just another one.

Ocean Beach after a rain storm in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, January 5, 2023. A powerful storm with hurricane-force gusts has begun to wind down after ripping across California, leaving behind power outages, flood threats and road closures just hours before another drenching is set to wash over the state. (Photo by Shelby Knowles/Bloomberg)