“One in Eight Hundred” by Mario Wezel, from Germany, is the winner of the “People” category. The title refers to the odds given to Martin and Karina at their prenatal screening before their daughter, Emmy, was born. The five-year-old from Denmark has Down's Syndrome. (Photo by Mario Wezel/Sony World Photography Awards)

“Guns have a massive amount of power associated with them. They are designed to kill. We decided to photograph portraits of them in a similar way you might photograph a powerful person. Like powerful people, pistols have this “perfect” quality that we wanted to explore. As we started shooting them, we could see flaws in their design. Metal burring around the barrels, scratches in the metal. This imperfection and detail were very interesting to us; connecting us back to these images as portraits”. – Peter Andrew. (Photo by Peter Andrew/Simon Duffy/Derek Blais)

“Life-size humanoid robot BERTI (Bristol EluMotion Robotic Torso number 1 or RT-1) is a self contained, fully automated Robotic Torso, designed and built by Elumotion to provide a robotic platform based on human anatomy. RT-1 is a highly articulated manipulating platform and includes novel dexterous hands that allow emulation of human gesturing”. – Elumotion.com

Photo: BERTI the robot interacts with a Sony AIBO robot dog at The Science Museum's Antenna Gallery on February 17, 2009 in London. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

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.

People watch on from Marks Park as a thunderstorm gathers off Bondi Beach on November 13, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a number of severe weather alerts for the region today, with a high risk of thunderstorms and hail. (Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

A British photographer has captured life at the “edge of the world”. Timothy Allen, best known for his work on BBC's Human Planet, trekked through the freezing Siberian wilderness for 16 days as he joined part of an 800km migration of reindeer in the Yamal-Nenets region – a name that roughly translates to “edge of the world”. The stunning pictures feature the nomadic Nenets tribe, who drink blood to survive in -45°C temperatures. Timothy's epic journey, which will be revealed in an eight-minute documentary on Animal Planet USA, saw him travel across the bleak terrain of the frozen Ob River with the Nenets people in December last year. Here: An empty camp is shown beneath a colourful sky in Siberia, December 2016. (Photo by Timothy Allen/Barcroft Productions)

The abandoned Moulton and Kyle Funeral Home in Jacksonville, Fla., which is more than 150 years old, was left to rot, with the premises eerily strewn with open caskets, a hearse and embalming chemicals. Much like the corpses that were laid to rest, the remains of this building too are slowly decomposing and decaying. Black mold has engulfed the walls, and chipped tiles from the collapsed ceilings cover many of the floors. (Photo by Abandoned Southeast/Caters News Agency)

MSP Ash Regan and Lexie take part in Holyrood Dog of the Year on June 26, 2023 in Edinburgh, Scotland. At the annual contest, jointly organised by the Kennel Club and Dogs Trust, members of the Scottish Parliament compete with their dogs and Dogs Trust rescue dogs for the title of “Holyrood Dog of the Year”. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)