Soap Bubble Structures by Kym Cox. Bubbles optimise space and minimise their surface area for a given volume of air. This phenomenon makes them a useful tool in many areas of research, in particular, materials science and “packing” – how things fit together. Bubble walls drain under gravity, thin at the top, thick at the bottom, which interferes with travelling lightwaves to create bands of colour. Black spots show the wall is too thin for interference colours, indicating the bubble is about to burst. (Photo by Kym Cox/2019 Science Photographer of the Year/RPS)

Boys play with water as they celebrate Myanmar's New Year Water Festival of Thingyan in Yangon, April 13, 2016. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Men push a car stucking in the mud on a motorway in Nimba County, Liberia, 28 July 2019. Most highway roads in the rural parts of the country are unpaved. The government of President George Weah has promised to build roads to connect all big cites of Liberia. (Photo by Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA/EFE)

A mahout splashes water on his elephant on a hot summer day in Ahmedabad, India on April 8, 2019. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

A child dressed as an Ewok character participates in a Star Wars parade in Mexico City, Saturday, October 15, 2022. (Photo by Marco Ugarte/AP Photo)

Kashmiri vegetable vendors assemble at a floating market in the interiors of the Dal Lake in Srinagar April 17, 2012. (Photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters)

Japan's delegation gather to sign the formal surrender document on the U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay in a September 2, 1945 file photo. (Photo by Reuters/US Navy)

Rays from the rising sun shine through the foliage of trees as fog covers the ground near the Guckler Karoly Observatory in Budapest, Hungary, 02 January 2017. (Photo by Balazs Mohai/EPA)