William Gibson is not one of the authors that spits out novels like a machine – in his long and fruitful career he has only published 11 novels andof short stories and articles in the tens each. Still his impact on modern literature was huge – the “noir prophet” of the cyberpunk subgenre (that he was one of the pioneers of) has predicted the rise of reality television, virtual reality, video games and the internet. He is a Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction writer, with a special eye for what the future might bring.

Ralph Mirebs, an urban explorer and photographer in Russia, has revealed extraordinary photos of Soviet space shuttle prototypes gathering dust in an abandoned hangar. The abandoned hangar is located at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which is still in operation today (with the close of NASA’s shuttle program, Russian Soyuz shuttles are the only way for astronauts to reach the International Space Station). The Buran prototype shuttles found by Mirebs, however, are from an earlier era – they are the last remnants of a space program that began in 1974 and was finally shuttered in 1993. (Photo by Ralph Mirebs/Exclusivepix Media)

In the build-up to Halloween those hunting for a real-life ghost town need look no further than this haunting spot. Bodie, California, USA – which requires special access to photograph at night – is one of the best preserved ghost towns in America, still featuring the abodes of the former miners who inhabited it more than 100 years ago. Here: Bodie, California, a real-life ghost town. (Photo by Matthew Christopher/Caters News Agency)

Iraqi women practice at the sports club in Diwaniya, Iraq on November 10, 2018. On the blue mats of the al-Rafideen Club in the conservative city of Diwaniya, some 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, some 30 female wrestlers, some still wearing headscarves, train three times a week. When a big competition comes up, they train every day. (Photo by Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters)

In this picture taken on October 28, 2017, former Japanese p*rn star Mana Izumi checks her new tattoo at a tattoo studio in Tsurugashima, Saitama prefecture. Tattoos still provoke deep-rooted suspicion in Japan as the country prepares to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. People with body ink are refused entry to public swimming pools, bathing spots, beaches and often gyms, while visible body art can be harmful to job prospects. (Photo by Behrouz Mehri/AFP Photo)

Photochromes are vibrant and nuanced prints hand-coloured from black-and-white negatives. Created using a process pioneered in the 1880s, these images offer a fascinating insight into the world when colour photography was still in its infancy. A Tour of the World in Photochromes is at the Swiss Camera Museum, Vevey, until 21 August. Here: Street food in the Strada del Porto in Naples, Italy, 1899. (Photo by Swiss Camera Museum/The Guardian)

Dancers perform at a Carnival parade in Les Cayes, Haiti, Tuesday, February 28, 2017. Haiti's three-day Carnival festivities have brought rum-fueled parties, imaginative costumes and high-energy dance music to a southern city that's still recovering from last year's punishing Hurricane Matthew. (Photo by Dieu Nalio Chery/AP Photo)

A doll in a children's gas mask is seen amongst beds at a kindergarten in the abandoned city of Pripyat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine on March 28, 2016. Deadly radiation still spews from Chernobyl 30 years after the worst nuclear meltdown in history, as a newly built giant arch is pulled into place to cover the stricken reactor for the next century. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)