Plaster cast moulds of victims of the Mount Vesuvius eruption lie on a display table in a laboratory at Pompeii October 13, 2015. An expert team made up of archaeologists, radiologists, orthodontists and anthropologists began on September 2015 to use CAT scan technology (computerised axial tomography) to peer inside the plaster cast moulds of Pompeii's victims, in a study that has added more detail to previous findings. A 16-layer scan had to be used in order to penetrate the hardened plaster but the results showed up impressive skeletal remains and near perfect teeth. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

The Cotopaxi volcano, one of the world's highest active volcanoes, spews smoke as seen from El Pedregal, Ecuador, October 22, 2015. Ecuadorian authorities are monitoring activity at Cotopaxi volcano, which prompted Ecuador's President Rafael Correa to maintain a yellow alert for eruptions as bursts of ash keep spewing from the snow-encircled crater of the volcano and falling in gusts on residential communities. (Photo by Guillermo Granja/Reuters)

It is said that Torajans are people who “live to die”. For this Indonesian ethnic group, funerals are such extravagant events that they sometimes attract tourists. Families can postpone burials years (and the deceased are considered sick and hosted at home until the funeral) until the family can raise enough money and gather as many relatives as possible. And then it’s a jubilant multiday social event with a parade, dances and animal sacrifices. Agung Parameswara photographed these funerary practices when he traveled to South Sulawesi province, where the Torajans live. (Photo by Agung Parameswara/The Washington Post)

Lioness and hyena posture to one another, in Masai Mara, Kenya, August 2015. A photographer captured one of the oldest rivalries in the animal kingdom as a pair of lions went head to head with a pack of hungry hyenas. (Photo by Ingo Gerlach/Barcroft Images)

Jenny Parks is a scientific illustrator that also happens to be a shameless nerd, with a penchant for drawing animals, dinosaurs, imaginary creatures… and occasionally, people as cats. Somehow, she found herself with a bit of internet fame with the illustration ‘Doctor Mew’, and has been baffled ever since. With a BFA in illustration from the California College of the Arts, and a graduate degree in Science Illustration from UC Santa Cruz, she now resides in San Francisco as a freelance illustrator, fulfilling her destiny to make a living drawing cute, fuzzy things.

A woman holds a parasol as she stands in a field of fireweed, or Kochia scoparia, on a sunny autumn day at the Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachi, north of Tokyo, October 26, 2015. Fireweed is a grass bush that takes on a bright red colour in autumn. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)